mtenis.com.pl

Rublev puts an end to Russia’s wait for a junior champion

Saturday, June 7, 2014
By Alexandre Juillard

Andrey Rublev won the boys’ singles on Saturday, defeating Spain’s Jaume Antoni Munar Clar 6-2, 7-5 to become the first Russian to win the tournament since 1966.

Off court, Andrey Rublev looks every bit the junior player with his youthful features and demeanour. Once he crosses over the white line however, he transforms into a big hitter with a forehand and a double-handed backhand a la Yevgeny Kafelnikov. And in the boys’ singles final, he put those talents to good use, defeating Spain’s Jaume Antoni Munar Clar 6-2, 7-5.



“It’s great,” he enthused after the match. “My mother, father, sister and grandfather were all there as well as friends in the stands, and I played my best match of the tournament. This win proves that I’m doing the right thing and that I need to carry on the same way.” 

Rublev has certainly been on the right track for a good while now, having been world No.1 in the under-14 category in 2011, won the Orange Bowl at 16 and bagged two Futures titles this year.

A fitting reward for a teenager who eats, sleeps and breathes tennis. 

“I don’t remember exactly when I first started but my mother is a tennis coach so I grew up with a racquet in my hand,” says Rublev, who trains in Moscow as well as spending a few weeks every so often at the IMG centre in Florida.

 The 17-year-old became the first Russian to win the Roland Garros boys’ singles tournament since Vladimir Korotkov in 1966.