Andrey Rublev had "one big talk" with Marat Safin to "fix my head" after Wimbledon

Andrey Rublev is more than ready to turn the page on his 2024 season—again. But this time, the keys to his turnaround may be coming from an unlikely source.

The top seed at the Plava Laguna Croatia Open Umag recently opened up about how he’s been working on “fixing (his) head” amid his current slump in results—thanks in part to a long conversation with Marat Safin, Russia’s former world No. 1.

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“(After Wimbledon) I worked to fix my head, because the problem wasn’t with my tennis. I just focused on fixing my head,” Rublev told Bolshe’s Sofya Tartakova in a pre-tournament interview.

“It’s gonna sound funny, but it’s all thanks to Marat Safin… We got in contact somehow, and that’s it. He helped me... Big special thanks to him.”

The 26-year-old revealed that he spent some in-person time with Safin after his shock first-round defeat at Wimbledon to Francisco Comesana, and had “one big talk” with the two-time Grand Slam champion. Safin, who trained in Valencia, Spain during his tennis career, is “a great friend” of Rublev's team led by Fernando Vicente and Alberto Martin.

While he declined to share any details of their conversation, Rublev says he came away feeling “confident” that his tennis struggles will soon be in the rearview mirror.

“Now, after Wimbledon, everything is in order, thank God, so there will be a breakthrough soon,” he said, adding, “I’m confident now that everything will be alright.”

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Could a long chat with the famously temperamental Safin be just what Rublev needs to hit the mental reset button? Only time will tell, but it’s clear the Moscow natives had a lot in common to discuss: Safin’s father, Mikhail, was the director of the Spartak Tennis Club, the same club where Rublev’s mom, Marina Marenko, is a longtime coach. Like Rublev, Safin’s tennis journey took him out of Russia and to Spain, with Marat and younger sister Dinara—herself a WTA world No. 1—moving to Valencia to train and Rublev landing at Galo Blanco’s 4Slam Tennis Academy in Barcelona.

And both Russians are known as hotheads, with Safin earning the “gifted but mercurial” label from tennis press after many moments of brilliance and epic meltdowns. Safin, though, eventually found a way to harness his strong emotions, and finished his career with two major crowns: the 2000 US Open and 2005 Australian Open titles.

Rublev himself is still seeking Grand Slam glory, but right now he’d be happy to just “get through one or two matches” amid an up-and-down season.

The 26-year-old looked poised for breakthrough success after winning an ATP 250 title in Hong Kong in the first week of the year and reaching the Australian Open quarterfinals. But his momentum suddenly derailed when he was defaulted from his semifinal match in Dubai after lashing out at a linesperson. Since then Rublev, once one of the tour’s most consistent players, has struggled to record back-to-back wins: A four-match losing streak was interrupted by winning his second ATP Masters 1000 title in Madrid, and after reaching the third round at Roland Garros he’s once again lost four matches in a row.

If there’s a silver lining, it’s that Rublev’s chat with Safin may have come at just the right time, with the world No. 9 sitting out the upcoming Olympic Games and having relatively few ranking points to defend until the US Open.

The top seed and 2017 Umag champion will face Camilo Ugo Carabelli in the second round after receiving a bye.