"The smell from my mouth you cannot imagine how horrible it was": Andrey Rublev battled tonsil abscess in Madrid win with hospital stint

Andrey Rublev winning the Madrid Open was a remarkable feat especially given that as he revealed he had a tonsil abscess during his time in Spain with the Russian struggling to breathe and having to go to hospital before and after his run.

He said in his post match speech after beating Felix Auger-Aliassime that he was going to have to go back to hospital amid his illness. Speaking ahead of the Rome Open, he said that not only was it unbearable to speak and is still hard to swallow but also the smell was too.

He said that the smell from his mouth was unbearable as he battled this. Especially given his recent form, an early loss may have been on the table but he had two battles seemingly given his on court fight and also off it with a painful time in hospital. He now faces Marcos Giron tomorrow in Rome.

"I feel now perfect, and I spent two and a half days in the hospital. I had a tonsil abcess. I mean, it was crazy because one day I wake up with my throat double bigger than it should be. So, the hole where you breathe is super small," Rublev said.

"The throat is super in pain. It's tough to swallow because it's painful. It's tough to breathe because you have less space. And then it started to be all this. Not poison, how do you call this? When you have an infection but like a bad color, so my throat was in an ugly color," he added. "And the smell from my mouth, you cannot imagine how horrible it was. I could not take it, and then after the final, I started feeling worse."