Rublev put friendship aside with Zverev in Dubai: "He always beats me, so why need to be tight?"

Andrey Rublev was convinced that the match was going into a 3rd set but the Russian managed to keep it in two sending himself into the Dubai final.

Rublev faced his good friend Zverev whom he had played a couple of times but never defeated. In the second set, it seemed like Zverev was turning the match around and Rublev thought that they were heading into a 3rd set:

“I was thinking it was going to be a third set. I was preparing mentally for the third set but I somehow saved a set point. I had a couple of match points but he played well but in the end at 9/9, I made a good return and then I said ‘Ok, let’s try to make it here’. I won a crazy rally and I was lucky. It was a super intense tie-break.”

He then talked about their relationship:

“We are really good friends, we have known each other since 10 or 11 years old. We have been together since juniors. He was always like an older brother to me and in all the previous matches he beat me. Today when I was going on court I thought I had nothing to lose. He always beats me, so why need to be tight.”

On facing Medvedev, Rublev said:

"Daniil, he plays really low and flat. Daniil is like the one that counterattacks, waits for the right moment. It's going to be maybe 30 shots [a] rally."