World No. 9 Andrey Rublev said conversations with two-time Grand Slam champion Marat Safin helped him deal with his mental health, and that he is 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, but the 27-year-old Russian was at his best en route to winning the Qatar Open last week.
He is back this week in Dubai, where he was defaulted from his semifinal match last season after a Russian-speaking official said he uttered an obscenity while screaming at a line judge.
Rublev said he 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 antidepressants for a year but stopped when they did not help him anymore.
Things began to change last July after he spoke with his compatriot Safin, who retired in 2009. Safin, a former world No. 1, was no stranger to on-court outbursts, having broken dozens of rackets during his career.
“He made me understand myself,” Rublev said. “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 on Tuesday.
Reuters contributed to this report.