Andrey Rublev said he had accepted a wild card for Barcelona this week in the belief that his participation in the Monte Carlo Masters would come to a halt against Rafa Nadal in the quarter-finals on Friday.
But the exhausted Russian has now been left with a very quick turnaround after he beat the Spaniard and then went on to reach Sunday's final of the ATP Masters 1000 event, where he lost to Stefanos Tsitsipas.
"When I confirmed to play Barcelona, it was right before the match with Rafa," Rublev told reporters with a smile after his 6-3,6-3 loss to Tsitsipas in Sunday's final.
"I was thinking in my head that Friday probably I will be already in Barcelona."
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Nadal, who counts 13 of his 20 Grand Slam titles on the red dirt of Roland Garros, has lost only six times at the clay-court tournament, an event he has won 11 times.
Rublev, 23, climbed to a career-high ranking of seventh on Monday, having registered the most wins (21) on the ATP Tour season in 2021.
Greek Tsitsipas, 21, edged ahead with a 4-3 lead in their head-to-head rivalry with Sunday's win.
"If we talk deeply, of course, I mean, I feel tired after all the matches that I play, exhausted," Rublev said. "But this is not (an) excuse. He was just better than me, and that's it."
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Following the ATP 500 event in Barcelona, Rublev will take a week off to rest before he gets back on Tour at the back-to-back Masters 1000 events on clay at Madrid and Rome next month.
"I think I can play on Wednesday, so I have like two days off, which is more than enough," he said.
"We'll see how I will feel. I think everything is going to be okay because two days is more than enough to be ready. Then I'm not playing nothing, I have only Masters."
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