"Gone from meme to serious concern": Tennis insider urges Andrey Rublev to get 'psychological' help after he injures knee from temper in Paris Masters

Tennis journalist Jon Wertheim has voiced concern over Andrey Rublev's temper, which led the Russian to injure his knee during his defeat at the Paris Masters. Wertheim suggested that Rublev seek psychological help and also proposed changes to the ATP code of conduct.

The Russian was defeated 6-7(6), 6-7(5) by Francisco Cerundolo in the second round of the 2024 Paris Masters. During the second set of the match, Rublev hit his knee repeatedly with his racket, which caused bleeding.

Jon Wertheim retweeted a clip featuring the moment when the 27-year-old struck his knee with his racket and expressed serious concern, stating that the incident highlighted a need for psychological support for the Russian.

“This is gone from tennis meme to source of serious concern....This obviously goes deep and begs for sports psychology. But if the @atptour code of conduct treated this as harm/abuse - and not self-harm/abuse - maybe there's at least some scoreboard deterrent?” Jon Werthiem tweeted.

Andrey Rublev's loss gives Alex de Minaur, who has already defeated Mariano Navone, a shot at an ATP Finals spot. Grigor Dimitrov can also boost his Finals bid with a strong performance in Paris.

Andrey Rublev shared that his overwhelming desire to succeed often leads him to lose his temper

Andrey Rublev has had several outbursts before as well (Image Source: Getty)

Rublev has often displayed visible frustration during matches, sometimes injuring himself or lashing out at umpires and match officials. In an interview posted on Reddit earlier in February, he admitted to experiencing intense emotional outbursts when his strong desires go unmet, leading to moments of panic and inadequate reactions

“I make mistakes, there are ugly emotional outbursts, sometimes completely inadequate cuz the desire overwhelms me,’ I want this, I need this and when you can’t hear or see anything and the reality doesn’t match the desire you start to panic and that panic manifests itself in inadequate emotions,”Andrey Rublev said.

This season, Rublev has won two titles. He secured his first at the Hong Kong Open by defeating Emil Ruusuvuori 6-4, 6-4 in the final. His second came at the Madrid Open, where he triumphed 4-6, 7-5, 7-5 over Felix Auger-Aliassime.

Rublev also reached the final of the Canadian Open but lost 2-6, 4-6 to Alexei Popyrin. He also reached the quarterfinals of the Cincinnati Open. All in all, the Russian has won 42 out of 64 matches so far in 2024 and remains in contention for a place in the ATP Finals.