Rublev reigns over the courts of Rome: "They have always been bad, it is no longer surprising"

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The Media Day at the Masters 1000 in Rome was quite calm until we stumbled upon statements from Andrey Rublev in the Russian media outlet Championat criticizing the state of the courts at the Foro Italico.

So, what's the issue with the courts at the Masters 1000 in Rome? Well, as we've heard, they may not be the best on the clay court circuit. Considering how nervous a player can get with the poor bounces on this surface, one of the major challenges of each event in this circuit has always been to meticulously maintain the condition of their courts, persuading players to attend those stops that best protect this parameter. In this regard, it seems the reason tennis players don't want to miss Rome is for the tourism the city offers.

“Well, the courts here have always been like this,” the Russian starts firing shots at the Italian courts. “With any routine bounce, it's always the same, the courts are as crooked as you can imagine. It has always been like this; it would be surprising to be surprised by this upon arriving here. I don't know if the bounces were good at some point and then turned bad... but if they have always been this bad, I don't quite understand the point of the question,” Andrey confesses in the interview.

What's amusing is that the tournament boasts about having courts most similar to those at Roland Garros. “These courts have no resemblance at all to those in Paris. I've been playing in Paris for years, and there it's all much more slippery, there isn't much sand, especially on the outer courts,” Rublev argues, sparing no one. “There, things have also changed. Since the pandemic, they are not the same; it's as if there's no longer any clay, as if playing on terrestrial surface. There's hardly any sand on the smaller courts, we'll see how they are this year, but in the last 2-3 years, there was no clay at all,” he emphasizes.

Charmed by the city, not so much by the courts

What Andrey Rublev is indeed pleased with is the city surrounding the Foro Italico, an emblematic place like Rome that always welcomes you with thousands of stories to discover. True, his performance at this tournament hasn't been the best (6-6) – perhaps due to the discomfort he always felt with these courts?–, but it's never too late to try again to show that he has more than enough tennis to play a significant role in Rome.

“The city is beautiful; I don't have much to say about this place because I love it. It's a fantastic city, as a tourist, it's lovely to stroll around here, the entire history one can find in every corner. One must come here at least once in a lifetime; last year, I lost early and took the opportunity to go on excursions for a couple of days. There are many things to see and do here in Rome; each place has a very special story to tell,” concludes the current World No. 14.

This news is an automatic translation. You can read the original news, Rublev raja de las pistas de Roma: “Siempre han sido malas, ya no sorprende”