Rubljov: I owe my gratitude to Djordje Djokovic

Andre Rublev breezed past Peruvian tennis player Juan Pablo Varillas for a place in the quarter-finals.
Rublev defeated Varillas with 2:0.
Although Rublev outscored Varillas easily enough, the Russian player was humble in his comments on
the match.
"I’ve been making progress every day and I hope I’m heading in the right direction. Your team is very
important, you have to talk to them, to be sincere with yourself and always look for solutions. It is
important to avoid self-deception, be sincere with yourself and your team. And work on that on a daily
basis. If someone cuts you off in traffic, try to remain calm even when you’re upset. The same rule can
be applied on the tennis court”, Rublev explained figuratively.
In terms of matches and conditions at the Centre Court Rublev agreed with Novak Djokovic that
conditions were slow. Other tennis players seem to think the same.
"Tennis court is really slow. Maybe not the slowest I’ve every played on but a bit slower than in Monte
Carlo. I would say that in the semi-finals, against Fritz, it was even slower because it was raining.
However, I like these conditions. It was excellent. I like to play in these conditions, when it’s not too
warm.
Rublev arrived quickly from Monte Carlo to Banjaluka and he says he owes his gratitude to the
tournament director.
"I would like to express gratitude to Novak’s brother, Djole. He helped me a lot on the journey from Nice
to Banjaluka. I didn’t expect it and I would like to thank him. I had a day of rest on Monday, on Tuesday
I practiced a bit, on Wednesday a bit more and I played rather well today. I didn’t expect such an easy
win. Juan almost defeated Zverev at the Australian Open, he is dangerous and can play really good
tennis. I didn’t expect everything to go my way today”.
Rublev’s next opponent is Damir Dzumhur. It was interesting to hear who was better friend of Novak’s,
himself or Damir, namely who will give advice to whom..
– Novak doesn’t need advice. He’s the best in the world. When it comes to Damir and myself, we are
friends, we practiced together many times. We’ll see what happens”, Rublev concluded with a smile.