Rublev credits Nadal for inspirations which helped him win the St. Petersburg Open title

Andrey Rublev fulfilled dreams on Russian fans atending the event in St. Petersburg by winning the final against Coric and lifting the title.

The St. Petersburg Open has been a very strong event for many years but this year it was bumped up to an ATP 500 event. As such it drew many strong players to the event but it was Russian standing tallest at the end as Rublev defeated Coric in straight sets to win the trophy. One thing that inspired him to push so hard was Nadal and his Roland Garros victory. He said:

“I cannot imagine how — I’m not even talking about [just at] the Grand Slams — it is possible what he is doing,.To be mentally that strong all your life and all your career, I don’t know how it is possible.”

One thing that the Russian highlighted especially was the ability to find ways to win even if you are not feeling it:

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“Even if you take other sportsmen or athletes, they can have bad days. But because maybe the team is good, they are still winning. In tennis, if you are having a really bad day… it is really tough to find a way [to win] and compete like nothing happened. He has done this during all his career. For me, he is the best athlete, not even in tennis, the best athlete in history.”

Rublev is having the best season of his career. He was won 4 ATP tour events this year a feat only matched by Djokovic. No other player has more than two. All those achievements allowed him to climb to career-high number 8 on the rankings. Despite all of that Rublev keeps pushing inspired by his Idol Nadal whom he happily called the best athlete in history.