By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Tuesday December 8, 2020
Andrey Rublev caught fire at the start of 2020, never let down his guard and was on of the brightest ATP stories of 2020.
Photo Source: Erste Bank Open
As the 2020 tennis season winds down Tennis Now is looking back on the movers, shakers and achievers. We continue our series with a look at Andrey Rublev’s breakout season in 2020.
More 2020 Season in Review: Victoria Azarenka | Ugo Humbert | Iga Swiatek
Wins, wins, more wins and titles, titles and more titles. The Russian, who will turn 24 next October, finished tied for the ATP lead in wins with 41 and he led the tour in titles with five.
Rublev was one of the few players that maintained his form both before and after the coronavirus pandemic hit. He started the year with two consecutive titles and became the first player since 2004 to win titles in the first two weeks of his season. He then returned from the five-month shutdown and won three more titles and reached the quarterfinals at both Grand Slams he played.
What Was His Greatest Achievement in 2020?
Again, it’s tough to pin down one achievement that was Rublev’s finest moment, but we’ll have to say reaching the ATP Finals for the first time sums up all of the Russian’s efforts nicely. Rublev rose from 23 in the world to reach year-end ranking of No.8 in the world, an impressive jump no matter how you measure it.
But reaching London had to be achieved with great overall consistency, and this was the nonpareil characteristic that stood out for Rublev in 2020. He won three 500 titles, racked up a 15-match winning streak at one point, claimed two of his titles without ever dropping a set and lifted the Vienna trophy without ever dropping serve.
What Else Stood out about Rublev in 2020?
The serve went next-level. Rublev outperformed his career service hold percentage by seven percent, as he held serve in 86 percent of his service games in 2020 against just 79 percent for his career.
Rublev hit a career-best 411 aces against 76 double-faults and won 54 percent of his second-serve points.
Getting more out of the serve was one of the many ways that Rublev improved his overall game in 2020. He also got more out of his return, winning 29 percent of his return games, compared to 25 percent in 2019.
Coach Talk:
Rublev’s coach, Fernando Vicente, says that his charge simply understands how to play the game smarter these days. It’s a theme that Rublev hits on in his press conferences often, and when he does he admits that he is very much a work in progress when it comes to understanding all the nuances of tennis tactics and shot selection.
Vicente says that Rublev is making giant strides in the right direction. These are the types of improvements that don’t jump out to the casual fan but make a big difference on the court, especially against other top players.
“The good thing now is that he understands, and I help him to understand when to play certain directions, when you have power you have to choose well, you cannot choose wrong because if you do you run double,” Vicente said. “You hit in wrong direction you keep running, it's simple things, in the end you have to see more or less how the good players and the top players, which directions they are using."
Vicente says that even when Rublev makes mistakes with his shot selection, he’s quicker now to realize where he went wrong.
“He told me that nobody explained really how to play that nobody told him to go line or why to go cross, when you are dictating with the forehand where to go, when to choose inside-in or inside-out, if you play tennis you must understand and now I feel that he understands,” Vicente says. “When he plays wrong directions, he understands why it's not working sometimes."
What Is Rublev’s Year-End Ranking?
Rublev stands at No.8 in the world (of all the Top 10 players his +15 jump from one year prior is by far the biggest), one of two Russians to reside in the Top 10, along with World No. 4 Daniil Medvedev.
Other impressive stats logged by Rublev: He came back from two sets down for the first time to win his first-round match against Sam Querrey at Roland Garros. … He went 10-2 on the clay. … He went 11-3 at the Grand Slams. … He improved to 40-23 lifetime in deciding sets by winning 7 of 11 deciders in 2020. … He went 5-0 in finals.
Can we expect more brilliance from Rublev 2021?
He will certainly work hard to make it happen. As one of the most diligent workers on tour we expect him to continue improvement in all areas of his game, but it will be difficult to maintain his ranking with mega points to defend.
True to form, Rublev will embrace every challenge he faces, and set his sights on the Top 5—he may not get there in 2021, but he will surely continue his growth as a player and as a competitor and will keep impressing us all the while.