Andrey Rublev is making his fifth appearance at Wimbledon, where last year he reached the quarter-finals, his best result at the season's third major.
Ahead of the grass-court Slam, ATPTour.com sat down with the No. 6 player in the PIF ATP Rankings to discuss his earliest Wimbledon memories and a fun — but scary — hobby he indulged in last year during the tournament.
What is your first memory of watching Wimbledon?
For sure my first experience was watching on TV. I was a kid, not travelling to see any tournaments, so I could only watch tennis on TV. I don’t remember which match was exactly my first ever, but first everything starts with TV and as I became older, I started to understand more about tennis, follow more players and little by little, you get to know the tournaments and the results.
I remember listening to the radio on if Rafa won his match at Wimbledon or how the situation [went].
When did you first play at Wimbledon and what were your first impressions?
Juniors in 2014. At that time, when I was playing juniors, every Slam was something unbelievable because other junior tournaments cannot compare. They have only the club, organisers from the tournament and the players. You don’t really have spectators. You play these junior tournaments with only your coach watching. Maybe some tournaments try to bring spectators, but it’s not the same.
When you go to junior Slams, it’s like, ‘Wow!’ It gives you a little vision of how tennis looks like. You are a bit in shock of how things are different.
What is the greatest memory you have had at Wimbledon?
Making the quarter-finals.
Outside of Centre Court, do you have a favourite court?
The last years I’ve played most of my matches on Court No. 2 and Court No. 3. Between these courts two years ago, three years ago, and last year they started to put me on Centre Court.
Do you have a favourite Wimbledon tradition and why?
The same shower or maybe the same restaurant near the house. I always rent a house. We stay together with all the team. We have a little garden where we can spend time. Last year, every evening we were watching a scary movie. A horror movie just for fun. I was talking to my team, ‘Okay let’s watch something that will [give us] tension. Let’s turn off the lights and watch a horror movie!’ It was fun in the moment.
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