Andrey Rublev made the headlines recently when he was controversially defaulted from the Dubai Tennis Championships, for unsportsmanlike conduct in his semifinal match vs Alexander Bublik. The Russian tennis ace was accused of using an obscenity in his mother tongue while screaming at a line judge in the final set of the match.
The chair umpire defaulted Rublev after a Russian-speaking official accused him of using an obscenity, while he screamed at the line judge. On the other hand, Rublev denied the accusations and revealed that he spoke in English. Bublik came back from a set down to lead 6-7(4) 7-6(5) 6-5 was left utterly confused and even stated that he was happy to continue the match.
Reacting to the incident, Rublev revealed that he ‘apologised several times’ and also lashed out at his critics. Speaking to Russian journalist Sofya Tartakova, he said, “Of course, I was disturbed, too. So, by now, I’ve apologized several times. No, not hard at all (to apologize) because it was my fault and it’s unacceptable to behave like that, to raise my voice like that. No matter if it’s a line judge, a fan, or just a regular person. I am no one to allow myself such things doesn’t matter if a person has been correct or not.”
“Such things are unacceptable in general, it’s disrespectful. So of course, I feel guilty about it, and I’m ashamed that I allowed myself to do such things, it just never (gained such attention). To be honest, I have been allowing myself similar things many times before that incident.”
Feeling that he was ‘accused of things he didn’t do’, Rublev stated that he should have been punished fairly, but it was also unacceptable to punish him in that manner. “It was also difficult because I was being accused of things I didn’t do. Of the words that I didn’t say. I talked to them, it was all discussed and watched, then, after the discussion you suddenly see that they’ve added even more words that you didn’t say,” he said.
“I wasn’t even offended. I just didn’t understand how, we’ve talked it over, you can see it clearly, you can hear it clearly. I just wanted justice. I just wanted to be fair. At least punish me fairly for what I’ve really done: For screaming at a person, for swearing at a person. It was indeed unacceptable to punish me for that,” he added.
He was also set to lose all of his Dubai ranking points (200) and prize money (157, 755 Dollars), but after a successful appeal to the ATP, he was allowed to keep both. He will also need to pay 36,400 dollars in fine.