Andrey Rublev has plenty of happy memories in Monte Carlo, lifting his maiden Masters 1000 title in the Principality in 2023. The Russian tennis star came back from a break down in the deciding set of the championship match to beat Holger Rune 5-7 6-2 7-5. It was third time lucky for Rublev, who had previously lost two Masters finals.

But the world No. 15 has now revealed that the "euphoria" of lifting his first Masters trophy didn't last long, and within a week, most of his friends had "disappeared", as is the nature of the ongoing tennis tour.

It wasn't to be for Rublev in Monte Carlo this week, as he picked up an injury during his opening match and needed a "horse dose of painkillers" to get through it, beating Nuno Borges in three sets. He was still out of sorts in round two and suffered a 6-4 6-1 defeat to Zizou Bergs.

But the 28-year-old still remembers what it felt like to be crowned the champion here three years ago - although the hype quickly died down. "That was a special week, that's it, I don't know!" he told Tennis Channel.

"Then, it was, for the first three minutes, euphoria. For maybe three, four minutes, complete euphoria. Then stress to answer everyone! Because suddenly I become a friend to everyone for a week."

But some of those friendships didn't last long, as the messages of support quickly vanished when Rublev headed to Banja Luka and lost in the final a week later. "And then I lose next week, then everybody disappeared again!" he laughed. "Now, it's just an amazing special memory that will be with me forever."

Rublev wasn't able to hit the ground running in Monte Carlo this year, however, as he appeared to injure the back of his shoulder blade early on in his first-round match. He still ground out a 6-4 1-6 6-1 victory, and then said: "In one moment, I thought, Okay, it's done.

"And then I was able kind of, Okay, let's just accept it, let's just kind of trust, let's trust, don't start to put pictures now, 'It's over, I cannot play, maybe I need to pull out or something'. Let it be the way it should be. And in the end, I think for sure it helped a lot."

But the 13th seed wasn't sure how he'd hold up in his next match, and he struggled against Bergs, winning just five games as he was ousted in round two.

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