Andrey Rublev turned a heavy forehand into 18 ATP titles

A tennis coach's son from Moscow

Rublev's father, also named Andrey, was a professional boxer who later went into the restaurant business. His mother, Marina Marenko, is a tennis coach. Her work at Moscow's Spartak Tennis Club included time with Anna Kournikova, according to his Wikipedia biography, and Tennis Majors reports that Andrey started playing at three. The junior results arrived early. In 2014, at 16, he won the boys' singles at Roland Garros, beating Jaume Munar in the final, and he reached No. 1 in the junior rankings that June.

His professional start carries the best footnote in his whole file. At the 2017 Croatia Open in Umag he lost in qualifying, got back into the draw as a lucky loser when someone else withdrew, and then won the tournament, beating Paolo Lorenzi 6-4, 6-2 in the final. He was 19. Wikipedia counts it as only the seventh time a lucky loser had won a tour title. A player who was technically out of the event went home with the trophy. That's a hard origin story to beat.

How his game actually works

Rublev is an attacking baseliner, and the forehand is the whole show. He hits it very hard, as often as he can, and uses it to push opponents back until a short ball appears. His two-handed backhand can hurt people too, but it runs hotter and colder. The weaknesses are just as consistent as the strengths: a second serve that can be attacked and a double-fault count that climbs when he is tight.

In his opening match at the Hangzhou Open on September 25, 2026, he hit 29 winners past Rinky Hijikata in a 77-minute, 6-3, 6-3 win. That's the recognizable version of him. When the forehand is landing, a match can be over before the other player settles in.

What I find more telling is how loud that style is. Rublev plays at full volume, and the grunt that comes with each forehand is distinctive enough to have become a nickname: some fans call him "Bweh" after it. The other nickname, "Rublo," is a pun on the Russian ruble. The same word later became the name of his clothing line, which is the nicest part of his story.

The titles, and the one statistic that follows him

His best season for trophies was 2020, when he won five: Doha, Adelaide, Hamburg, St. Petersburg and Vienna. The two biggest came later. He won Monte-Carlo in April 2023, beating Holger Rune 5-7, 6-2, 7-5 for his first Masters 1000 title, and he won Madrid in May 2024, coming from a set down to beat Félix Auger-Aliassime 4-6, 7-5, 7-5. He has also lost four other Masters finals, which says more about how often he gets there than about any collapse.

Then there is the number every tennis fan knows. Rublev has reached 10 Grand Slam quarterfinals, at all four majors, and lost all 10. Tennis Majors describes him as the only player in the history of the sport to lose his first 10 major quarterfinals. We wrote a separate piece on that record, because the losses have a pattern worth explaining. Three of the ten came against the man who went on to lift the trophy.

The kind heart behind the rackets

The reason so many people like Rublev, even on his most frustrated days, is mostly off the court. In late 2023 he launched his own clothing line, Rublo, and told the ATP that "All the income from the collection (100%) will go to children in need." He wore it through the season in which he won Monte-Carlo, which is a sweet thing to do with the biggest year of your career.

He is also godfather to Daniil Medvedev's daughter, Alisa. The two men have known each other since their teens and play each other constantly, which makes the arrangement even better. At the 2024 ATP Finals, Medvedev told the ATP he had heard a new nickname for Rublev in China, "golden monkey," and wanted everyone to use it from then on. The ATP, to its credit, put it straight into the headline.

Why Marat Safin is in his corner

In April 2025 Rublev added Marat Safin, the former world No. 1 and two-time major champion, to his team for the clay season. Rublev said Safin had inspired him since he was a kid and had known him that long too. The arrangement has been loose by design: Safin sat out the North American swing in 2025 while waiting on a visa, and the reporting has described his role both as head coach and as an adviser alongside longtime coach Fernando Vicente. He was still in the box at the Italian Open in May 2026, urging Rublev on during a 6-2, 6-4 quarterfinal loss to Jannik Sinner. Our companion piece traces how the two families connect through one Moscow tennis club.

Where his 2026 season stands

The majors have been rough this year. He lost in the third round of the Australian Open, in five sets to Jakub Mensik in the fourth round at Roland Garros, and in the first round of Wimbledon to Roman Safiullin, 14-12 in a fifth-set tiebreak. At the US Open he came back from two sets down against Otto Virtanen, winning the deciding tiebreak 10-5, then lost to Daniel Merida in the second round. He was ranked No. 24 on August 31, down from No. 14 after Båstad.

The autumn looks steadier. He beat Hijikata and Hugo Gaston in Hangzhou, and ESPN listed a semifinal against Kyrian Jacquet for Monday, September 28, 2026. I won't guess the result. The pattern is the more useful thing to take away. Rublev wins a lot of matches at tour events, gets to a lot of big quarterfinals, and keeps turning up with the same huge forehand and the same wide-open face.

If you came here wondering who the loud Russian with the huge forehand is, that's him. He's a lucky loser who kept the trophy, a two-time Masters champion, a godfather, and a man who gave a year's worth of clothing profits to children. Eighteen titles in, he is still chasing the one match that has beaten him ten times, and I hope we get to write that story.