‘I’m not sorry to be in the final!’ Andrey Rublev on puzzling camera message

April 15, 2023

Andrey Rublev wrote a cryptic message on the camera after his semi-final win in Monte-Carlo

Andrey Rublev (Rus) defeated Taylor Fritz at the Rolex Monte Carlo Masters (Antoine Couvercelle/Panoramic)

Writing “I’m sorry” on the camera after winning a Masters 1000 semi-final is certainly a choice – but Monte-Carlo finalist Andrey Rublev could offer no real explanation as to why he did it after beating good pal Taylor Fritz in three sets 5-7, 6-1, 6-3.

Asked for the reason he chose that for his message, he replied: “I don’t know. Because I didn’t know what to wrote, and I wrote ‘I’m sorry’ because I didn’t know what to wrote.

“I don’t know. I had no ideas in my head at that moment. I didn’t want to repeat the things that I was writing, so just wrote ‘I’m sorry’ because I didn’t know what to wrote.”

Friends first and foremost 🥰@AndreyRublev97 @Taylor_Fritz97 #RolexMonteCarloMasters pic.twitter.com/ffbGgFVxcE
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) April 15, 2023

Inevitably, he was asked if he was sorry to be in his third Masters 1000 final, and he grinned his response: “Of course not. No, I’m happy to be in the final!”

Rublev: I knew I would have chances against Fritz

In tough weather conditions – including a two-hour rain delay – Rublev fought back and took his chances against the American.

“First set was tough, because when you are three times up with a break and you’re losing your serve and then you’re losing the set, you feel really, really mad. It was tough.”

He opted to focus on his serve as much as he could, and that paid off in the second and third sets.

“He broke me, and I tried to think that it’s conditions, I will have chances. I had chances before, I broke him in the second set many times, so I will have at least one chance to break him back. Then I broke him straightaway.

“Then was rain delay, and after the rain delay, I think I was lucky that I won first two points. Then I start to feel he was really tight. It helped me a bit more. Also was the wind, a lot of wind. So it was not easy to serve for him.

“So I was thinking, okay, this is the moment. It will be tough for him to serve, a lot of wind, so just take advantage if he’s tight, and as soon as you have chance, go for it. In the end, I was able to break him.”