Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal were so good because they didn’t have these distractions
ROGER FEDERER and Rafael Nadal were able to focus on becoming so great because they did not have the same distinctions as today’s younger players, says Andrey Rublev.
Rublev, 20, reached the Citi Open semi-finals this week where he lost to Alex De Minaur.
However, the world No 37 finds it difficult to stay focussed, especially given the surge of smart phones and social media.
Federer and Nadal are still the top two players in the world, as they have been for well over a decade.
But the size of their teams when travelling around the tour also gives them a huge advantage.
“You can see the rankings and the winners are still the same as ten years ago,” Rublev said.
“I think the tennis changed a lot, players are older, they find ways to be healthy for a longer time, they try to recover better.
“Now everybody has a big team always with them.
Andrey Rublev believes young players have too many distractions (Image: GETTY)
Rafael Nadal is the world No 1 (Image: GETTY)
“Now for the younger players it's much tougher especially with these online things that do not let focus ourselves enough.
“I am trying to spend as less time as possible on social media.”
Rublev was sidelined with a back injury for three months earlier this season but he was delighted to get back on court in Washington DC.
“It was a really tough three months for me,” he added.
“I was not even thinking about how I'm going to play, if I would play good or bad.
“I was just missing being on court a lot. I was missing competing and finally I'm here, I'm was in the semis and I'm really happy.”
