The major health difficulties that almost prevented Andrey Rublev from competing in the Madrid Open have been exposed. Despite this, he managed to fall over the finish line after an intense encounter with Felix Auger-Aliassime.
With two breakaways, Auger-Aliassime surged to a 4-1 lead and finally won the first set 6-4. However, Rublev rallied to win the next two games 7-5 and win his second Masters 1000 title.
Rublev said in his on-court interview: “I have no words. If you knew what I had been through in the past nine days, you would not imagine that I would be able to win a title. I’m incredibly happy. I have to give full credit to the doctors. They were doing some tricky things and I was at least able to play. I would say this is the most proud title of my career. I was almost dead every day. I was not sleeping at night. The last three, four days I didn’t sleep.”
In an interview, Rublev disclosed more about his medical condition, including that he had a foot issue and had to consume baby food because his throat had seared up.
He added: “At the beginning of this week, starting at the weekend, I had a virus. Tomorrow we go to the hospital to check. Half of my throat is blocked completely. And the first day I couldn’t eat because it was burning so I had to eat baby food. It was a disaster. Then, when I started to feel a bit better, my throat became even more inflamed. Nothing helped, so doctors were doing some injections that allowed me to go to court. Then I started to get inflammation on my feet that started to affect the bones. I couldn’t put my feet inside the shoes.”
The whole week was a disaster for him🥹 https://t.co/fI0KGwsfXi
— dotdotennis✏️🎾đź‡đź‡° (@dotdotennis) May 5, 2024
Andrey Rublev in 2024
Now the world no.6, the Russian played his last match on the 5th of May when he beat world no.20 Felix Auger-Aliassime 4-6 7-5 7-5 in the final in Madrid to win his 16th career title.
This year the Russian owns a composed 21-8 record. Rublev conquered 2 titles in 2024 in Hong Kong and Madrid.
Andrey clinched 2 titles in 2024 in Hong Kong and Madrid.
Andrey won 17 titles in his career: 5 on hard courts, 6 on clay courts and 6 on indoor courts. (See the list of his titles)
