Russian tennis player Andrey Rublev threw a temper tantrum at Wimbledon after a bad swing helped him lose a match against Grand Slam debutant Francisco Comesaña.
Wimbledon rules bar players from smashing rackets against the court, so Rublev chose the next best thing—slamming his racket into his knee five times, leaving it bloody and bruised before crashing out of the tournament to the Wimbledon rookie.
“I don’t know why in that moment, I couldn’t take it any more,” Rublev told a post-match press conference. “I needed to let emotions out. But thanks, everything is fine. Again, I was a bit lucky.”
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Rublev said his behavior should have been more positive, and that Comesaña deserved to win.
Rublev is known for his fiery temper after poor performances—he kicked his court-side bench and hit himself in the leg in May after his chance to win the French Open slipped away. At last year’s Wimbledon quarter finals, Rublev threw a fit as he played a losing game against Novak Djokovic, screaming and going off on his coaching staff.
Whether Rublev’s knee has fully recovered from its latest beating is unclear, but one thing is for sure—he will not be winning the men’s final on July 14.
