Rubin shows human side of tennis with "Behind The Racquet"

UNIONDALE, N.Y.—From Stefanos Tsitsipas' vlogging to Naomi Osaka's photography, there's a trend among younger players on tour of finding creative outlets to brighten up the duller parts of the pro-tennis grind and give insight into their lives.

Among the most intriguing of these endeavors is Noah Rubin's Behind The Racquet, a Humans of New York-style Instagram account that Rubin uses to share the stories of tennis players of all experiences.

"This is teaching me, along with teaching everybody else, that we're not just tennis players," the 22-year-old said. "There's many levels to us. We go deeper than that. We all have a story."

Each post features a portrait of a different player holding his or her racquet in front of their face, captioned with a quote about the challenges and insecurities they deal with.

Rubin kicked the project off in January by sharing a little bit about himself first, saying his "most daunting fear" is disappointing the family members and friends who have sacrificed for his success.

Since then, more than 10 players have participated in the project, all opening up about subjects that are normally difficult to discuss publicly.

Ernesto Escobedo talked about his stutter:

Nicole Gibbs unloaded an anecdote about depression that she'd been holding in:

Christopher Eubanks dove into his struggle with the loneliness of the road:

Dustin Brown discussed the nuances of being both German and Jamaican:

And Jamie Loeb told the story of her mom's stroke:

"We all work our asses off, and [casual fans] only see the Slams," Rubin said. "Not everybody knows what we go through on a day-in, day-out basis—and the thoughts and the depression and the obstacles that we each have to overcome personally."

The world No. 152 lost a hard-fought 6-7 (7), 7-5, 6-1 opener at his hometown New York Open on Monday, to No. 7 seeded Jordan Thompson.

While Behind The Racquet lives mainly on Instagram for now, Rubin, the art aficionado that he is, says he wants to someday take it to the physical realm:

"I'm obsessed with coffee-table books," he said. "I have a thousand of them. So I would hopefully make one, one day and get on the Humans of New York level, so we'll see how this goes."

Christopher Eubanks dove into his struggle with the loneliness of the road:

Dustin Brown discussed the nuances of being both German and Jamaican:

And Jamie Loeb told the story of her mom's stroke:

"We all work our asses off, and [casual fans] only see the Slams," Rubin said. "Not everybody knows what we go through on a day-in, day-out basis—and the thoughts and the depression and the obstacles that we each have to overcome personally."

The world No. 152 lost a hard-fought 6-7 (7), 7-5, 6-1 opener at his hometown New York Open on Monday, to No. 7 seeded Jordan Thompson.

While Behind The Racquet lives mainly on Instagram for now, Rubin, the art aficionado that he is, says he wants to someday take it to the physical realm:

"I'm obsessed with coffee-table books," he said. "I have a thousand of them. So I would hopefully make one, one day and get on the Humans of New York level, so we'll see how this goes."