Rublev doesn't see extra pressure heading into Roland Garros: "No one cares if you win or you lose"

Andrey Rublev has played a fairly decent clay season winning the Monte-Carlo Masters but he doesn't feel any extra pressure ahead of Roland Garros.

The Russian has always been a pretty solid clay player and has won trophies on it. One of those trophies was won this year in Monte-Carlo where he completed a comeback win over Holger Rune. The Roland Garros start was pretty good as he won the opening match over Djere despite a slow start.

Even though he's not the top favourite, Rublev's name has been included among those capable of winning the event. It's something that hasn't happened to many times in the past and he was asked about it. Explaining how he feels about it, Rublev said:

"Better, better (smiling). I don't know. It's better. Better when they mention less your name than more. No expectations. I don't know, at the US Open I almost lost to him. Today I was close to lose two sets to one. No expectation. Just to focus on the things that I have to do in a set."

Rublev also had an interesting take on pressure and expectations. According to Rublev, expectations are something for the media to talk about while players mostly focus on their own goals not worrying about what the media is saying. That is at least how he looks at it:

"I don't know. It's more like a game for the media and everyone that, okay, you think now I have to win or whatever. It's a bit fake, because in reality, no one cares if you win or you lose. That's the reality. So I try to just, like I said, to focus on the things that I need to focus and to try to think less about what's going round."