Andrey Rublev looks set to miss the Olympic Games despite Russian players being allowed to compete as neutrals.
Rublev’s decision was recently conveyed by his mother who said that the choice was taken for the sake of her son’s health.
It has been reported that Rublev is suffering from recurrent tonsilitis and he has opted to treat the condition during the window occupied by the Olympic Games in Paris.
“Yes, Andrey will not go to the Games in Paris,” Rublev’s mother Marina Marenko said.
“I only recently learned from him that he will not participate in the Olympics. But he didn’t say why. I think it has to with health. Andrey just needs to find time to heal his throat. Treat or remove tonsils. I understand that after this, the body is greatly weakened.”
Rublev is already an Olympic gold medallist thanks to a victory in the mixed doubles in Tokyo.
The Russian has admitted that he lets the mental side of the game get to him.
He had an explosive meltdown on his way to an upset loss to Matteo Arnaldi at Roland Garros.
“I was struggling, and then I had really good result in Madrid. Now I’m playing well again,” Rublev reflected after that loss.
“I feel that I have a good game, I’m improving… The problem is the head, that today basically I kill myself, and that’s it.
“Yes, I feel it’s tough to be, in some moments tough to be kind to myself, and of course if I was able, I’m sure that those moments will never happen.”
While some players have criticised the scheduling of the Paris Olympics tennis event, Rublev had previously said that he was eager to compete at the event.
“If God wills and everything remains in its present-day situation meaning that we can play, while I’m physically fit and okay to play, it’s very likely that I’ll go [to Paris],” Rublev said in an interview with Russia’s Sport-Express daily.
“I will be certainly in the singles [competitions] and I don’t know about the rest of the [Russian] players, because we have not decided this issue as of yet,” he added.
Russia remains suspended from the IOC following the Russian Olympic organization including the Olympic councils of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR), the Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions as its members in the midst of the ongoing war un Ukraine.