ROLAND GARROS

May 27, 2025

Andrey Rublev

Press Conference

A. RUBLEV/L. Harris

6-4, 4-6, 6-3, 6-1

THE MODERATOR: Can you walk us through the match today. What do you think was the key to get the win?

ANDREY RUBLEV: Strange. Strange match because, I don't know, it's strange conditions or something or me. But was tough, tough to play in terms of a lot of mistakes from both sides.

Yeah, I was feeling inside more or less fine. I was opposite, like, telling myself to go more free for the shots. The feeling was I was missing more and the ball wasn't going at all. The same I start to feel for him. As soon as he was trying to hit, he was missing as well.

The first two sets he was more just playing from me and I was playing just with myself. Or I was missing, some of them I was making.

And then somehow I start to do opposite from the third and fourth sets. I slow down. I start to play more rally, more calm, and suddenly the ball was going even faster and I hit more winners. From 6-3, 6-1 I hit more winners than when we played first two sets and we played much more games.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. I don't know if you saw the stats, but it looked like you had almost as many backhand winners as forehand winners today. How pleased are you by that? Is it something you've been working on?

ANDREY RUBLEV: I feel last two weeks my backhand is much better. I feel much more confidence in my backhand than last couple of months. I don't know. I like that I hit also a lot of winners with the backhand.

Q. More broadly, how are you feeling about your game? Obviously at the slams it's a bit more tough over the last 18 months.

ANDREY RUBLEV: I don't think it's more about the game, it's more about myself. Last week I did well. I was kind of improving. I was in the right direction. So we'll see.

Game-wise, you cannot control it. You can play amazing out of nowhere, and you can be in your best shape and suddenly play not good match. So it's not about the game.

Q. How has it been the last few years with the emergence of Jannik and Carlos making it even more difficult?

ANDREY RUBLEV: About emotions or...

Q. The emergence of Carlos and Jannik coming in.

ANDREY RUBLEV: I don't know. I feel okay. They are playing amazing, both of them. They're now the best players after the big three, big four, I don't know. So they're the best players at the moment.

I don't know what else to say. I mean, I'm trying to improve, get better. We'll see.

Q. Your shoes, looks like you're wearing the new K-Swiss ones. How involved were you on that? What is the process like of making a new shoe?

ANDREY RUBLEV: No, was fun because it was good that they were kind of give me open, how you say, open hands to say whatever I like, whatever I would like to have in a shoe. I explain everything that I would like to see.

Then they did design. I say that I really like it, that this is the design I would like to play. Then they made the shoes. This is the first tournament.

I like them really a lot from feeling-wise and from looking-wise. For a long time one of my favorite looking-wise shoes.

Q. Next you're playing an Australian, Adam Walton. What do you think of his game?

ANDREY RUBLEV: I know him and I know who he is, but I don't know him. I never watch his matches and we never played. I will need to study a bit.

But obviously I saw him already on many tournaments. It's mean that he's doing great, he's getting better and better. In general, all the Australians, they know how to play tennis. It's always tough to play against them. They have, yeah, fighting. They have a good shots, good serves, most of the Australian players.

So yeah, it's going to be tough match, for sure.