"I mean he killed me or I mean I kill myself": Andrey Rublev on receiving Rafael Nadal practice beating, difficult to process final Barcelona Open

ATP
Tuesday, 16 April 2024 at 12:10
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Andrey Rublev will begin his Barcelona Open campaign this afternoon albeit with the caveat that he will play second fiddle to Rafael Nadal and the same could be said for their practice earlier last week which saw the Spaniard prevail in a 6-1 set. He spoke ahead of his campaign starting about being 'killed' by Nadal and how it was all arranged.
“Not really. I mean he killed me or I mean I kill myself I don’t know, but the practise is always nice to practise with Rafa. But no these questions we don’t really ask because we arrived at the court, it was time. So we had to start to play,” Rublev said. "I think for sure (it was me). I don’t think Rafa asked someone for practice. I think most of the players are asking Rafa to practise. So I’m pretty sure my coach takes to his team and this is how we arranged the practice."
But also it was a golden opportunity for Rublev with Nadal set to retire seemingly in the coming months and he said it is hard to get his head around Nadal playing a final Barcelona Open.
“It's a tough question because it's tough to realise or tough to think that this can be one of our last practises or one of his last tournaments because he proved many times that he came back from impossible situations that now it’s tough to think that way," he said.
“When he was coming back from the situation that everyone was saying, ‘Now is for sure,’ ‘Now is for sure,’ ‘Now is for sure,’ and he always was proving (everybody wrong) and he was coming back. So and now they’re not saying yet for sure, that’s for sure. So it’s tough to think that way for the moment. Let’s see when the moment comes,” he added.

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