The champions held a press conference at the end of World Tennis League, a team-based exhibition tournament that pitted some of the world’s best players against each other in Abu Dhabi. But one chair was empty: Andrey Rublev, the unofficial MVP of the winning Team Falcons, was excused as he was already en route to his next exhibition event in Macau, China (S.A.R.).
Known as one of the most hard-working guys on tour, Rublev seems to bring that all-day, every-day work ethic with him into tennis’s short offseason, with the Russian taking just a week or two to rest and recharge before getting back to the travel grind.
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Rublev packed his off-season schedule with three exhibition tournaments, starting with the UTS Grand Final in London earlier this month. The world No. 8 says he approaches these events as not just as an opportunity to off-set the high cost of tennis travel—last year, he calculated that by winning UTS “you cover (the cost) all the year of your team in flights”—but also as a high intensity practice where he can put his off-season learnings to the test.
“It’s an exhibition tournament, but because of the format, it fits well for the kind of endurance practice, because it’s a high intensity and your heart rate is very high during the game,” he explained to Tennis Majors.
“So it’s like a normal endurance practice. I was doing, let’s say, last week, 30-40 minutes… with a high heart rate. And here is perfect to continue to do it, but in a more competitive way, more real to tennis, and more fun.”
