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Drivers soak in Championship Sunday
The latest thrill for two Formula 1 stars was not a white-knuckle trip around a racetrack, but a highly entertaining championship Sunday at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters.

Monagesque Charles Leclerc, brother and Formula 2 driver Arthur Leclerc and Frenchman Pierre Gasly were among the stars who watched Andrey Rublev capture his maiden ATP Masters 1000 crown in a thrilling final against Holger Rune.

After the championship clash, the racing stars spent time with Rublev and Rune.

From left to right: Arthur Leclerc, Charles Leclerc, <a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/holg ... ew'>Holger Rune</a>, and Pierre Gasly.
Arthur Leclerc, Charles Leclerc, Holger Rune, and Pierre Gasly. Credit: Sébastien Darrasse
“I’m extremely excited, it’s one of the biggest events of the year here in Monaco,” Charles Leclerc said in a video produced by the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters. “I’m really happy to be here. It’s amazing to see such a big sport event here in Monaco and see so many people attending.”

Gasly added: “It’s my first time here in Monte-Carlo for the Masters, definitely excited to be following the final. I love the competition. I love to be able to see greatness in a different environment.”

During the preceding doubles final, Leclerc was on the edge of his seat as he watched countryman Romain Arneodo and Austrian Sam Weissborn compete against fifth seeds Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek. After saving two championship points, the Croatian-American duo sealed a dramatic Match Tie-break.

Brain Game analyses the Monte-Carlo final
Thirty-one straight backhands in the court with the match on the line.

Andrey Rublev defeated Holger Rune 5-7, 6-2, 7-5 in the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters final by putting 31 straight backhands in the court from 1-4 down in the deciding set. Rublev missed his thirty-second backhand in the net going down the line serving at 6-5 40/0. It was an inconsequential error. An ace out wide at 40/15 on the ensuing point sealed a momentous victory.

Rublev’s backhand was the rock that got him over the finish line. Rublev also extracted seven errors using his backhand groundstroke from 1-4 down in the final set, with four being a Rune backhand, which overheated deep in the deciding set.

During the same period, with Rune leading 4-1 in the deciding set, Rune’s backhand broke down under self-imposed pressure. The Dane hit 31 backhands, committing six errors while hitting two winners and only extracting one error from Rublev (a forehand groundstroke).

Rublev’s backhand was always going in. Rune’s was much more of a wild card as the finish line rushed hard at both players.


The deciding set also featured three crucial moments in which Rune’s forehand return, serve, and overhead let him down. Rublev was a single point from trailing a double break when serving at 1-4, 30/40. He went with a surprise first-serve location, and it worked perfectly. For the match, Rublev served 52 per cent of his first serves out wide in the Ad court and 44 per cent down the T. On this hyper-critical point, he went with the secondary pattern down the T, and Rune sliced a forehand return just wide.

The pressure metre suddenly exploded on the slow red clay.

The second crucial moment came with Rune serving at 4-2 in the third set. He double faulted in the net on the first and third point of the game and was broken to 15. The pressure to close the match was clearly affecting the 19-year-old Dane.

Serving at 5-5 in the deciding set, Rune put back-to-back overheads in the net and double faulted again on break point. While Rublev kept his head, and his backhand in the court, Rune was rushing and missing.

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Rublev’s returns were also instrumental in his comeback from 1-4 in the deciding set. He only made two return errors while extracting two errors from Rune’s Serve + 1 forehand and backhand groundstroke. Rune, on the other hand, yielded seven return errors (three backhand/four forehand) while forcing just two Serve +1 errors from Rublev.

Rublev seemed to be more under pressure from the baseline throughout the match, but his stats stood tall against Rune from the back of the court when the red clay dust finally settled. Rublev won 51 per cent (60/95) of his baseline points for the match, while Rune was at 46 per cent (57/123).

Rune came to the net slightly more for the match but failed to finish points when it mattered. Rublev won an impressive 78 per cent (14/18) coming forward, while Rune won just 40 percent (8/20) at net.

The drop shot had worked so well for Rune to the final, but it evaporated in the heat of the match against Rublev. Rune won just 47 percent (7/15) of points in which he used his drop shot in the final, providing another underperforming area that contributed to his defeat.

Rublev’s victory was as much mental as it was physical. He said in his post-match interview that "And today I was at least [thinking], 'Okay, if you're going to lose today at least please believe until the end', and that is what I was trying to do in the third set, hoping that maybe I would have one extra chance to come back or something and in the end I was able to do it.”

Never go away. Never give up. The finish line is full of surprises if you just keep your head.

Fitness trainer and coach discuss team dynamics
Editor's note: This story was translated from ATPTour.com/es

Despite having won 12 tour-level titles and finished three consecutive seasons in the Top 10 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, Andrey Rublev started 2023 with one thing on his mind; winning a bigger tournament. It was mission accomplished at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters, where he picked up his first ATP Masters 1000 crown. To do so, however, he had to reinvent himself and practically rebuild his entire team in January.

One of his new mentors is fitness coach Marcos Borderias, one of the driving forces behind Rublev’s impressive season. The Spaniard was working with Maria Jose Martínez and Nikolas Sanchez Izquierdo, and with Argentine player Pedro Cachin, whom he was alongside during his rise from No. 253 to No. 54 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings. However, he received an Instagram message that persuaded him to change tack. It was a job offer from Galo Blanco, former World No. 40 and Rublev’s agent.

“I couldn’t sleep for three days. I couldn’t believe it. In two years I went from training players outside the Top 500 to the World No. 6. It was a huge leap,” remembers Borderias in conversation with ATPTour.com.

A few days after accepting the job on Instagram, he met his new pupil at a club in Barcelona. Fernando Vicente, Rublev’s main coach since 2016, was also there. Borderias’ admiration for the current No. 6 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings did nothing to prevent him from being objective and he was quick to diagnose which aspects needed work.

“When they contacted me they said, among the best in the world, in terms of fitness, Andrey was at the top,” remembers Borderias. “He may be very good at everything, extraordinary. But when I started I saw that there was room for improvement in his coordination. And there was also work to be done on speed, which is comprised of acceleration, deceleration, footwork and effort. And he’s really improved a lot. We’re still working on it.”

A lot of people may think that adding muscle volume would be the priority for a player who is 6’2” and weighs 75 kilos. To Borderias, though, Rublev’s slight build may even be an advantage.


If Rublev were to increase his muscle volume, he wouldn’t necessarily hit the ball harder. It may even have the opposite effect and rob him of his individuality.

“The best thing about him is his ability to produce power with loads as low as a racket... his hand acceleration is incredible! The time it takes him to complete the concentric phase of racket acceleration is insane, I’ve never seen that in my life,” he added. “And he’s so good technically, which is what allows him to suddenly produce a match in which he hits 40 winners.”

But Rublev’s power was less surprising than his personality. When they met, the 25-year-old player was shy, even to the point that he found it difficult to speak. But since then, they have become much closer through their intense sessions between tournaments and by travelling together to events like Indian Wells and Miami.

“Before we started working they had already told me he was a great guy. I thought: ‘Let’s see if it’s true.’ And honestly, as a person, I’d say you won’t find anyone better. In daily life he is incredible. He’s so generous, altruistic and affectionate with the fans and with us. He always wants to give us the best,” said Borderias.

On court, it’s a different story. Rublev’s strong temperament can be an advantage when it comes to facing big challenges, or a disadvantage if it gets the better of him when things are not going his way. That was another of the aspects that needed work, like his fitness, in 2023. Spanish coach Alberto Martin played a fundamental role in achieving Rublev’s goal of finding emotional balance.

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‘Beto’, the former World No. 34 and three-time ATP Tour champion, joined this year as the second coach to complete a team that now also includes Portuguese physiotherapist Carlos Costa and Spanish nutritionist Antonia Lizarraga. ‘Beto’ Martin, however, has a double role to play; he is both coach and psychologist, as he studied psychology at the University of Barcelona and graduated with a Masters from UNED.

“The idea is to help Andrey walk the line between being calmer and not going crazy at the slightest provocation,” says Martin. “But we don’t want him to lose the spark he has which makes him so good, or the aggressiveness. He is a player that has to play very aggressively, and if he’s passive and only pushes the ball, it doesn’t work. And we spoke about this with the team, about trying to find that balance. And, so far, he’s finding it.”

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Rublev has endured moments of frustration during the year. But he has increasingly more tools to quickly come through them and keep his chances of winning alive. Against Rune in the Monte-Carlo final, for example, he came back from 1-4 in the third set. Weeks earlier, he picked up three wins after saving match points; again against Rune in Australia, and against Tallon Griekspoor and Alejandro Davidovich in Doha.

All these success stories are also thanks to his team. “Alberto is a very humble and friendly guy,” said Rublev himself in his post-final press conference in Monte-Carlo. “He has studied sports psychology, and he can explain things to me easily during stressful moments. That has really helped me.”

The new methodology has borne fruit very quickly, and although the long-awaited first ATP Masters 1000 title has finally arrived, nobody on the team is thinking about downing tools just yet.

“The idea is to keep improving to get more results,” said Martin.

Borderias concurs: “Andrey can beat anyone and the idea is for him to keep having chances to win at the big tournaments.”

But to achieve that, all they can do is continue in the same direction.

Rublev announced in Monte-Carlo: “I like how I’m working now with my new team in terms of fitness, treatment, tennis and mentality. I feel this is the right path.”

Fresh off his maiden ATP Masters 1000 title in Monte-Carlo last week, Andrey Rublev continued where he left off at the Srpska Open on Thursday when he defeated Juan Pablo Varillas 6-2, 6-2 in his opening match in Banja Luka.

The second seed opened his shoulders and dictated play at the ATP 250 clay-court event, overpowering the Peruvian with his destructive forehand to earn his sixth consecutive win in 70 minutes.

Rublev now holds a 19-8 record on the year and will next meet Damir Dzumhur in the quarter-finals after the 30-year-old clawed past Frenchman Richard Gasquet 6-4, 1-6, 7-6(3).

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Rublev arrives in Bosnia and Herzegovina off the back of winning the biggest title of his career in Monte-Carlo. The 25-year-old defeated seeds Karen Khachanov, Taylor Fritz and Holger Rune to clinch his 13th tour-level crown in the Principality.

Rublev is currently fifth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin and could climb to fourth if he lifts his second trophy of the season in Banja Luka, where Novak Djokovic is the top seed.

In other action, Dusan Lajovic beat Gregoire Barrere 6-3, 6-0, while Miomir Kecmanovic ended Abedallah Shelbayh's run, overcoming the Jordan qualifier 6-4, 7-6(3).