A healthy and disciplined attitude can help Rublev get going in Dubai

A healthy and disciplined attitude can help Rublev get going in Dubai. 

Andrey Rublev was afraid he might be forced to withdraw early during the Dubai Championships after arriving late. 

Still, the Russian claimed that staying calm and composed was the key to his unexpected win over the British’s Daniel Evans on Tuesday.

Rublev made use of the seventh point of his match in his win over Evans 7-5, 6-4 in the opening round of Dubai just two days after winning the title of doubles and singles at Marseille.

The 24-year-old told reporters that he arrived in Dubai around 2.30 a.m. of his game against Evans and was left without much confidence.

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“I was thinking I have no chance,” Rublev said to reporters. “I’m super happy (with the win) because I didn’t expect this.”

The world’s top seven players admitted to having a longer than usual warming up and pledged to stay focused throughout the event to ensure he gets a shot for a great start at the ATP 500 hard-court tournament.

“The only chance to win today was to behave well… emotional discipline, to not show negative things, to not complain, to not say bad things,” Rublev said.

“If you happen to get injured (on the) inside, I’m tempted to wreck everything. But, if I start to do this, I’ll perform worse as it’s not going in a good way, and I don’t want to allow it to occur.

“I need to stay focused for feeling the ball… I was missing match points. Suddenly I make a passing (shot) out of nowhere. I think if I would start to complain after all these match points, I will not make this passing shot.”

Rublev is the 2nd seed in Dubai. He will be next up against South Korean Kwon Soon-woo.