World No. 8 Andrey Rublev spoke to journalists at a press conference before the Madrid Masters.
“It`s great to be back in Madrid. I really like this place. I like the city and everything outside… outside the tennis club, sorry. And yes, it`s a nice feeling to return with many great memories from last year and all the previous years. So, for now, the expectation is just to enjoy it. We`ll see closer to the matches.”
– Andrey, what can you say about working with Marat Safin?
“So far, I can`t say much because we`ve only been working for two weeks, and that`s a very short time to say anything. But I like everything, including what he says. I like everything he`s trying to show me, so we`ll see over time.”
– New ITIA rules regarding doping control were published this week. How do you live with such pressure every day, when you constantly have to be under close supervision?
“For me, this is a very important and very scary topic. Because I need, like most players, first of all, to write down a program every day of where we will be every hour, so we always need to remember that we need to keep doing it. If you don`t do it, at some point you forget, or, let`s say, they [doping officers] came to where you weren`t, that`s already one missed test. And if you have three missed tests, you are disqualified for two years. And this, in my opinion, is unfair, and it makes us, players, very stressed about such things, because, for example, yesterday I completely forgot to tell them that I was in Madrid, and I was lucky that no one came. But it was close, I was just lucky. And in general, in recent years, I`ve become afraid to take anything at all.”
“If I feel unwell or something like that, I don`t take anything just in case. But I`m lucky that I have the opportunity to ask a doctor if this medicine can be taken. But many players don`t have this opportunity, and then they go to the pharmacy, ask for something for a temperature or something like that, and they are given medicine. They take it, and maybe they find doping in them, and then they are disqualified.”
