Monte Carlo Masters star sparks concern after taking ‘horse dose’ of medicine during match | Tennis | Sport
Andrey Rublev has cast doubts over his Monte Carlo Masters campaign after picking up an injury in the middle of his first-round match, and taking a “horse dose” of medicine to get through it. The 2023 champion appeared to tweak something in the back of his shoulder blade during the first set of his clash with Nuno Borges.
He took an off-court medical timeout and won the first set when he returned, but was left questioning whether he’d have to retire mid-match while Borges raced through set two. But Rublev held on to claim a 6-4 1-6 6-1 victory, moving into round two. However, the No. 13 seed isn’t sure how his body will hold up, and admitted he had to win the match with his mentality after getting injured early on.
“Obviously, I think today was exactly a mental victory for me, because in one moment, I thought, Okay, it’s done. And then I was able kind of, Okay, let’s just accept it, let’s just kind of trust, let’s trust, don’t start to put pictures now, ‘It’s over, I cannot play, maybe I need to pull out or something’. Let it be the way it should be,” Rublev said straight after the match.
“And in the end, I think for sure it helped a lot. First of all, to be able to finish the first set, and then somehow to [not] pay attention that I am losing in the second. In the end, somehow, out of nowhere, I start to feel better. I was able to fight again, to play better, and in the end, I was able to win a match.”
Asked when he started to feel the issue around his back, Rublev replied: “To be honest, was a bit earlier, I just didn’t feel it. When I came back from the changeover at 4-3, when I went for a serve, I start to feel it a little bit. After the first serve that I did, I start to feel it much more, and after that long rally, is when it was completely done.”
The Russian is due to face either Zizou Bergs or Adrian Mannarino in his next match, but doesn’t know how he’ll feel. “The body feeling? I don’t know, because I took a horse dose of painkillers and a medical [timeout]. So I don’t know, let’s see after five, six hours, or tomorrow, how is the body?” he laughed.
This was Rublev’s first win at Masters 1000 level in 2026. He lost his opening matches in Indian Wells and Miami to Gabriel Diallo and Alejandro Tabilo, respectively.
The 28-year-old knows what it’s like to play through an ailment. He won the 2024 Madrid Open while being unwell, and said tournament staff had to make “baby food” for him after his throat “doubled in size”. Rublev went to hospital following his title win and later revealed that he had a tonsil abcess.
