VIDEO: Andrey Rublev comes to match without his rackets

A very rare event occurred at the 2021 Barcelona Open in the second-round match between Andrey Rublev and Federico Gaio.

The world number 7 and currently one of the most-feared players on the tennis court came to the match, but he lacked his equipment. That was caused by a stringer, who took longer with stringing the Russian's rackets than he was supposed to.

The umpire tried to quickly solve the situation and told Rublev that he can start the warm-up with the racket with old strings before a new one comes. However, that wasn't the case and the Russian needed to play the whole first set without a racket with new strings. Rublev then won the match in two sets and advanced to the third round of the 2021 Barcelona Open.