(Reuters) – World number nine Andrey Rublev said conversations with twice Grand Slam champion Marat Safin had helped him deal with his mental struggles and that he was now playing without stress or anxiety for the first time in years.
Rublev has struggled to keep his emotions in check at times during matches and his outbursts have overshadowed his game, but the 27-year-old Russian showed his best side with a run to the Doha title last week.
Rublev is back in Dubai this week where he was defaulted in a match last season after a Russian-speaking official said he uttered an obscenity while screaming at a line judge.
Rublev said he had moved on from that incident and other issues that had been dragging him down.
“I was in a loop, lost with myself for a couple of years of, I don’t know, not finding the way, not understanding what to do, what for,” Rublev told The National newspaper.
“It sounds a bit maybe dramatic or whatever, like what’s the reason or purpose to live or stuff like that.
“It’s one thing when it’s happening one month, two months, three months. Maybe you still have patience … When it’s coming for many years, you can’t take it anymore.”
Rublev said he took anti-depressants for a year but stopped when they did not help him anymore.
Things began to change last July after speaking with his compatriot Safin, who retired in 2009. Former world number one Safin was no stranger to outbursts having broken dozens of rackets on court during his career.
“He made me understand myself,” Rublev added.
“That was a bit of a restart from the bottom. I was able little by little to start to move in a better direction.
“I’m not happy. I’m not in a good or bad place, but I’m not feeling any more stress, I’m not feeling anxious, I’m not having depression. I’m just neutral. At least I found a base. That’s a beginning.”
Rublev begins his Dubai campaign against French qualifier Quentin Halys later on Tuesday.
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
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