“Inadmissible to raise your voice at a line judge… This is wrong and disrespectful” – Andrey Rublev opens up on his learnings from Dubai default

Andrey Rublev, a Russian professional tennis player, recently shared his thoughts on being disqualified from the 2024 Dubai Tennis Championships.

Rublev’s match against Alexander Bublik in the semifinals at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Center was an exhilarating battle that lasted until the end of the deciding set. It is worth mentioning that both of the previous sets had ended in a tiebreaker.

In the third set, Bublik was leading 6-5 when Rublev became angry with a line judge for a call made during the 5-5 game point. Another official reported that Rublev had verbally insulted the line judge, saying ‘f**king moron’ directly to their face.

Therefore, despite Rublev’s insistence on his innocence, the chair umpire and supervisor ultimately decided to default him.

The sixth-ranked player in the world recently spoke with Sports Express, a Russia-based media outlet, and shared his reflections on the embarrassing elimination in Dubai. He acknowledged his error, stating:

“That, of course, in any case, it is inadmissible to raise your voice at a line judge, or at anyone at all. At a spectator, a chair umpire, a lineman, or some other employee. You shouldn’t raise your voice at all. This is wrong, unacceptable and disrespectful. And this is even banal bad manners. I learned both this and the fact that some changes in the rules are still needed.”(translated)

Andrey Rublev: “Creating a Fair System of Punishments is Essential”

During his interview with Sports Express, the host also inquired about Andrey Rublev’s thoughts on whether tennis should adopt a solution similar to football’s VAR technology. The World No. 5 stated that while the VAR technology may be effective, its implementation could present challenges.

“This is one of the options, but the decision should be made by people who understand this. Because there are a lot of double standards,”Andrey Rublev said.

He supported his argument by stating that he had been engaged in numerous intense confrontations with officials throughout the years, but had never received as severe of a punishment as he did in Dubai. He stated:

“I’ve had much worse situations before, when I allowed myself to communicate even more rudely, including with the judge on the chair. But the most I got for this was a warning for obscene language.

“Therefore, there must be some clear structure of punishments, where a list of some things that are unacceptable will be written down, for which a warning is issued, and where you have already exceeded the bar.”

Despite his strong performance against Alexander Bublik, Andrey Rublev has been unable to replicate his success in subsequent matches. He was eliminated in the third round at Indian Wells shortly after and most recently, lost in the first round of the Miami Open men’s singles competition.