The recent incident of Andrey Rublev being disqualified from the 2024 Dubai Tennis Championships has caused quite a stir in the tennis world. It has divided the fans in opinions about the Russian’s behavior but almost all of them have an agreement on the fact that he was wrongly defaulted by the organizers and Coco Gauff’s coach Brad Gilbert has now joined the list of people in support of Rublev.
Gilbert said that although he does not support Rublev’s behavior towards the line judge, he does not think that it was totally fair to disqualify him based on those grounds. Moreover, he opined that not having an electronic court in a tournament like the Dubai Open is ridiculous and pointed out that the women faced the same issue a week ago.
For the record i don’t condone what Rubles did to linesperson, even if didn’t swear at, that becomes judgement call for umpire that’s 50-50 default, my beef absolutely. 100% ridiculous to not have electronic court in Dubai same issue with women’s week before. Gilbert via X
Although Rublev’s action can not be justified, it is indeed true that firstly, an electronic court could have avoided the entire fiasco, and secondly, it should probably not have been an immediate disqualification for the Russian as many fans have opined on Social media.
During a rally between him and Alexander Bublik in the 11th game of the third set, one of Bublik’s shots seemed to land outside the baseline. It went unnoticed and Rublev continued to play. Soon, one of Rublev’s shots landed outside the baseline on the other end of the court and at that time, the chair umpire gave the point and the game to the Kazakh.
This infuriated Andrey Rublev, and he shouted at the line judge for almost 8-9 seconds while also getting extremely close to him. After a heated debate between the Russian and the officials, he was disqualified and Bublik got a direct entry into the final.
Alexander Bublik defends Andrey Rublev’s actions after the match
Many are of the opinion that there was a language barrier that led to a misunderstanding between Rublev and the line judge and that he might have assumed that the Russian was abusing him, which ultimately led to his disqualification. Upon being asked about this in the post-match conference, Alexander Bublik said that he’s sure that Bublik did not say anything crazy.
I highly doubt Andrey said something crazy. He's not this kind of guy. But I guess that's the rules. That's what they did, they just follow up the procedure. It's a pity it's ended like this. You're fighting for 3 hrs, then this happens. You're bad in the media, which I hate. We can easily take away umpires but not players. Bublik said
Bublik lost to Ugo Humbert in the final of the Dubai Tennis Championships, eventually. The Frenchman won the match 6-4, 6-3 in straight sets.
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