Despite his gestures and shouts in Russian to a line judge in the
Dubai ATP 500
semi-final against
Alexander Bublik
, the sanction that
Andrey Rublev
received , which included his disqualification from the match and the tournament, was reversed by the committee. appeals and neither the points nor the money earned were taken away.
Shortly after this announcement, the Russian tennis player published a message of gratitude to the committee on his social networks, where he detailed, "I hope that in the future, the ATP pays more attention to this rule and applies a change so that it is
not force the outcome of a match without clear evidence
and without allowing the player to review the video."
This message, however, did not contain an apology to the linesman at whom he apparently yelled "fucking idiot" as reported by
Punto Break
.
The criticism continued to rain on his social media,
leading Rublev to finally post a video asking for forgiveness
on his Instagram stories, clarifying that he originally planned to do so during a press conference that never happened.
"I would like to apologize for my behavior in Dubai because it is unacceptable to shout at someone, be it a judge or a spectator," the Russian begins,
"I am not the one to do those things."
The video ends with him ensuring that he took a lesson from everything that happened and that
he hopes to be a better player from now on
, just as he had declared in his first message after the scandal.
Andrey apologizes about the incident in Dubai.
pic.twitter.com/mT2ozruobG
— Irina (@atpobsessed) March 7, 2024
Already inside the
Indian Wells
venue , Rublev declared again in an interview that it was not difficult for him to apologize because
"it was my fault and it is unacceptable to behave like that"
, stressing that he believes that what he did is a lack of respect and he is ashamed of itself.
With the sanction reversed, the Russian will face
the former world number one, Andy Murray,
in the second round of the Indian Wells Masters 1000 today from 5:15 p.m. in Argentina.