Frustration continues to boil over for Andrey Rublev with gruesome knee gash after hitting himself with racquet

Andrey Rublev's frustrations boiled over again in his semi-final clash against Jannik Sinner at the 2023 Vienna Open as he smashed a racquet over his knee.

The World No. 5 defeated Alexei Popyrin and Matteo Arnaldi earlier in the ATP 500 tournament to secure his qualification for the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin next month. After that, he overcame a three set battle against Alexander Zverev to set up the clash with World No. 4 Sinner.

The match started out well for Rublev as he broke his opponent to lead the first set 4-2. The 26-year-old then stayed solid until he was in a position to serve for the match.

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Rublev infuriated after losing first set

It was at this point that things started to go wrong for the Russian player. Two errors gave Sinner a 30-0 lead, before Rublev was able to claw back a point for 15-30. However, after an impressive rally, Sinner found himself with two break points, converting the second one to put the set back on serve.

From there, Rublev became increasingly frustrated. He is known for being very vocal about his emotions on the court and has often been seen shouting or taking his anger out on his racquet during matches.

Indeed, today saw another display of frustration from the player after Sinner took a 30-15 lead in the next game. As he has done several times before, Rublev hit the racquet on his knee, causing it to bleed.

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This outpouring of frustration did not help him to come back in the first set, as Sinner built up two more break points when the set was level at 5-5 and took the lead before successfully serving for the set. 

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Andrey Rublev hit himself on the knee after Sinner came back from 2-5 in the first set.

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