Andrey Rublev has conceded that his top-ten rivals feature many players that are more stable than him ‘psychologically’.
When Rublev was asked what he was looking to improve in 2024, he admitted that there were many areas he was eager to improve but mentality was foremost among those.
Rublev had another ugly meltdown during the ATP Finals but also feels that he can ease the pressure by improving other areas of his game.
“This year I have improved a lot in my backhand. This is something that I feel very good about, that it has become better,” Rublev told Championat.
“And I increased my movement. Now I move around the court much faster than at the beginning of the year. I began to maintain pace and speed much better, and began to defend better.
Rublev’s reply to a query on what he needs to do to take his game to the next level betrayed his lack of confidence.
“What needs to be improved? A ton of everything,” Rublev stated.
“The main thing, of course, is psychology. This is what I miss the most compared to Novak Djokovic, Daniil Medvedev, Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner. They are much more stable than me psychologically.’
“As for the technical aspects, the movement can be further improved. And we (my team) need to improve my second serve. This component clearly stands out to me from a bad point of view compared to everyone else in the top 10. Everyone serves the second one stronger than me.”
Rublev appears to have taken to heart claims that his game is limited and predictable as he rarely gets forward.
The Russian believes that he could turn things right around if he was able to get to the net effectively.
“Access to the net needs to be improved. If, with my game, I will be able to finish off not only simple balls but be able to unexpectedly reach the net – this will give me a big advantage.” He continued.
“Even if I only improve my psychology and second serve, it will be a completely different tennis.”
Based on matches played over the last 52 weeks, Rublev is presently ranked just 39th on the Tour in terms of most second service points won. But he has a greater success percentage than Daniil Medvedev and Alexander Zverev—51.4%.
Rublev believes there is a lot more to work on than accuracy on that second delivery but given how his season ended, he has to find a way to cope with pressure situations to continue to progress as a professional.