'It’s not about tennis': Andrey Rublev breaks silence on Alexander Zverev’s mental health battle

Russia’s Andrey Rublev has weighed in on a discussion about mental health issues faced by fellow tennis players. Germany’s Alexander Zverev recently commented on losing in the first round of Wimbledon 2025 to the Netherlands’ Arthur Rinderknech in a five-set thriller with a score of 7-6, 6-7, 6-3, 6-7, 6-4.

Talking after the match, Zverev admitted that he is having a hard time figuring out what has gone wrong with him in the recent past. Zverev stated that he never felt this ‘alone’ on and off the court, and he is keen to figure out the reason behind this before thinking about his goals for the competitions later this year.

“I'm trying to find ways, trying to find ways to kind of get out of this hole. I keep kind of finding myself back in it in a way,” he said back then. “I feel, generally speaking, quite alone in life at the moment, which is a feeling that is not very nice. It's not a feeling on a tennis court, it's just a life feeling in general. As I said, I never felt this way before. I don't know. It's difficult to find joy outside the tennis court for me at the moment. It's not an excuse or anything. I think Arthur deserved to win today. It's something I've felt for the past few months. Again, I just feel generally very, very alone and very lonely. I don't know. Just never felt that way before. I don't have the answers right now. I have to solve myself first. I have to solve my issues. I've been through a lot of difficulties in the media. I've been through a lot of difficulties in life generally. I've never felt this empty before. Just lacking joy, just lacking joy in everything that I do. It's not necessarily about tennis. Just lacking joy outside of tennis, as well.”

Rublev, who has also spoken about dealing with mental health issues in the past, has expressed his opinion about the comments made by Zverev. Rublev stated that he believes Zverev’s problem has nothing to do with having bad results on the court.

“It’s a tough conversation,” said Rublev, who spoke to the media after losing in the semifinal of the Mifel Tennis Open in Los Cabos to Aleksandar Kovacevic. “It’s a long conversation but what I have realised its nothing to do with tennis. Tennis is something that triggers something in some players. In my case, it was me. Tennis was triggering me. And I guess in Sacha’s case, tennis is triggering him because he loves tennis. It has nothing to do with results. In my case, I just decided to deal with myself and as soon as I started to deal myself better, the things started to get better. For myself, it was easy to speak about those things. I don’t know about the tennis world. Its not about tennis. Its in general. Everyone has their own struggles. It does not matter athlete or not athlete.”