I forgot to sign up for the tournament, I shouldn’t have played at all, I was the last alternate, with one racket with a shaky handle. I played against a player I always lost to. I lost to (Mikhail) Kukushkin 3-4 times that year.

I lost to (Nikoloz) Basilashvili a couple of times and in the Hamburg final, (Stan) Wawrinka always beat me easily. And I’ve beat the first, the second, and the third and it’s Federer,” Rublev said for Russian YouTube Channel “More!”

Andrey Rublev recalls ‘mentally feeling like Rafael Nadal’ in win over Roger Federer

Rublev on his match against Federer: I felt like I was Nadal

In the first set, Rublev blew an early break but broke Federer again in the fourth game and then held on to his serve for the remainder of the set to clinch the opener.

After winning the first set, Rublev broke Federer in the seventh game of the second set before serving out for the match three games later. “I hated the racket I was playing with, but didn’t matter what I was doing, it all went in, everything.

Impossible serves, that never happened before, an unexplained second serve that he couldn’t attack, returns, volleys that stayed in with some kind of magic, and mentally it was like I was (Rafael) Nadal,” Rublev said.