Shock win over Nadal leaves Rublev with little time to rest

Andrey Rublev said he had accepted a wild card for Barcelona this week in the belief that his participation in the Monte Carlo Masters would come to a halt against Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals on Friday.

But the exhausted Russian has now been left with a very quick turnaround after he beat the Spaniard and then went on to reach Sunday’s final of the ATP Masters 1000 event, where he lost to Stefanos Tsitsipas.

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“I was thinking in my head that Friday probably I will be in Barcelona.”