Andrey Rublev has received some good news after his Dubai campaign came to an end in a pretty bizarre way as the Russian tennis star won’t be stripped of his Dubai points and money after all.
In his Dubai semifinal match against Alexander Bublik on Friday, Rublev absolutely lost his cool late in the match after he thought that a line umpire made a wrong call. Moments after the call was made and Bublik won the game to go 6-5 up in the third set, Rublev went straight to the umpire and started screaming directly in his face. The line umpire in question remained calm but another umpire reacted and said that Rublev was using foul language in Russian.
Andrey Rublev and line umpire© Getty Images Sport – Christopher Pike
When the chair umpire came to the court, he believed the line umpire’s claim and Rublev ended up disqualified from the match. Because of the way Rublev’s run came to an end, the Russian was also set to lose all of his Dubai ranking points and prize money.
But after appealing and the ATP reviewing his case, the world No. 5 will still get his 200 ranking points and $157,755 prize money. While Rublev kept his Dubai prize money, he will still have to pay a $36,400 fine for his unsportsmanlike conduct.
“The ATP has reviewed an appeal from Andrey Rublev, following the player’s default from the semi-finals of the ATP 500 tournament in Dubai,” a statement from the ATP communication team that was sent to The National read.
“The appeal process took into consideration testimonies from the player, officials, as well as a review of all available video and audio materials.
“The appeals committee concluded that, beyond forfeiting the match, customary penalties associated with a default – namely loss of rankings points and prize money for the entire tournament – would be disproportionate in this case.
“As such, Rublev retains semi-final points and prize money for the tournament. A fine of $36,400 for the code violation remains.”
Rublev’s statement after winning his appeal
Shortly after it was reported that Rublev won his appeal, the 26-year-old Russian issued a statement, in which he confirmed the news.
In his message, Rublev acknowledged that he made a mistake in reacting in such a way in Dubai but also expressed his hope that the ATP will introduce some kind of VAR technology in tennis and allow players to challenge situations in which he found himself. Also, Rublev vowed to learn from the Dubai incident and do better next time.
Andrey Rublev© Getty Images Sport – Christopher Pike
“I want to thank the appeal committee for approving my appeal and changing course on the ATP’s initial decision of disqualifying me from the Dubai semifinal and taking away the rankings points and prize money I earned last week,” Rublev said in a statement he posted on his social media.
“I hope that in the future, the ATP will take a closer look at this rule and make changes to it, so that an official can’t force a match outcome without having clear evidence and not letting the player have a video review. While I am disappointed that I wasn’t able to finish my semifinal in Dubai, I am grateful for all the support I had from you the last two days, I received a lot of messages.
“Thank you to everyone supporting me, I promise I will learn from this and will try to be a better player and better person.”
— Andrey Rublev (@AndreyRublev97) March 4, 2024
Rublev set to return to action at the Indian Wells Masters
After finishing his deep Dubai run in a very unfortunate way, Rublev will be looking to bounce back at the opening Masters of the season which is starting this week in Indian Wells.
When Rublev kicks off his 2024 Indian Wells run, he will officially be starting his sixth main draw appearance in the desert. After failing to make it past the Indian Wells qualifying in 2016 and 2017, Rublev finally made his main draw debut in the desert in 2018. Since then, Rublev has featured in each of the last five Indian Wells editions – the tournament wasn’t held in 2020 due to the pandemic.
After losing in the Indian Wells second round in his debut in 2018, Rublev’s next two Indian Wells appearances ended in back-to-back third-round defeats. Then in 2022, Rublev made his first big Indian Wells run as that year he reached the semifinal before losing to Taylor Fritz. Last year, Rublev’s Indian Wells run ended in the round-of-16 with a defeat to Cameron Norrie.
Andrey Rublev© Getty Images Sport – Julian Finney
Considering that Rublev made the Dubai semifinal last week, it is safe to say that he enters Indian Wells in good form. But it remains to be seen if Rublev will be mentally impacted by what happened to him a couple of days earlier in Dubai.
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