Tennis fans know the fifth racket of the world Andrei Rublev as a pleasant , but an overly emotional tennis player. In the semi-finals of the ATP 500 tournament in Dubai, the Russian again confirmed this reputation by lashing out at the judge.
What happened to Andrey? The episode occurred at the end of the third set of a tense match against Alexander Bublik. With the score 6:7 (4:7), 7:6 (7:5), 6:5, after one of the plays, Rublev ran up to the line referee and sharply expressed disagreement with his decision. The Russian shouted several insults in Russian directly in the referee's face, after which another linesman speaking Russian told the referee on the tower about this.
Rublev's behavior led to serious consequences. The second seed of the tournament was disqualified. The Russian argued with this decision, called the supervisor to the court, but failed to justify himself.
The incident was commented on by former Russian tennis player Andrei Chesnokov. In his opinion, for obscene language addressed to the referee, the player should first be warned, and suspended only if the violation is repeated.
“»Sending a referee is not entirely good, you still need to understand that there are spectators and sponsors at the tournament. Punishment should be a point deduction, and then there should be a more decisive punishment. Victory was in Rublev’s hands, but he missed it,” liveresult.ru quotes him as saying.
Nightmarish consequences Rublev's incontinence resulted not only in dismissal. The Russian will now not be able to claim the main prize of the tournament, the prize fund of which is almost three million dollars, but he will also lose all the money he earned and rating points from the moment it began. Because of this, Rublev will fall out of the top 5 in the world rankings. At the same time, those who came to Andrey’s defense were also found.
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"That is, you can simply disqualify a player, take away his points and prize money, without even checking the video replay? What a joke, another confirmation that we need VAR in tennis and an electronic signal line for all tournaments,” Russian tennis player Daria Kasatkina supported Rublev on social networks.
This is not the first time that Rublev’s temperament has prevented him from performing successfully on the court. In January 2023, during the Australian Open, he found himself in a similar situation, cursing in Russian during a match in the presence of a referee who understood the great and powerful language. Then, however, there was no disqualification. However, Rublev regularly receives warnings and even fines for using obscene language and intentionally damaging rackets.