From Abu Dhabi to Macau: Andrey Rublev's whirlwind exhibition tournament schedule

The champions held a press conference at the end of World Tennis League, a team-based exhibition tournament that pitted some of the world’s best players against each other in Abu Dhabi. But one chair was empty: Andrey Rublev, the unofficial MVP of the winning Team Falcons, was excused as he was already en route to his next exhibition event in Macau, China (S.A.R.).

Known as one of the most hard-working guys on tour, Rublev seems to bring that all-day, every-day work ethic with him into tennis’s short offseason, with the Russian taking just a week or two to rest and recharge before getting back to the travel grind.

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Rublev packed his off-season schedule with three exhibition tournaments, starting with the UTS Grand Final in London earlier this month. The world No. 8 says he approaches these events as not just as an opportunity to off-set the high cost of tennis travel—last year, he calculated that by winning UTS  “you cover (the cost) all the year of your team in flights”—but also as a high intensity practice where he can put his off-season learnings to the test.

“It’s an exhibition tournament, but because of the format, it fits well for the kind of endurance practice, because it’s a high intensity and your heart rate is very high during the game,” he explained to Tennis Majors.

“So it’s like a normal endurance practice. I was doing, let’s say, last week, 30-40 minutes… with a high heart rate. And here is perfect to continue to do it, but in a more competitive way, more real to tennis, and more fun.”

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After UTS London came the World Tennis League in Abu Dhabi, which is a stone’s throw away from Rublev’s off-season training base in Dubai.

The 27-year-old joined Elena Rybakina, Denis Shapovalov and Caroline Garcia on Team Falcons, all but carrying them to victory as he helped navigate Overtime and Super Shootouts, and went undefeated in singles sets against Jordan Thompson, Nick Kyrgios, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Sumit Nagal.

Having clinched the victory for the Falcons, Rublev was asked by an over-enthusiastic interviewer if “these are the moments you play tennis for” — and the Russian’s hilariously blunt response was heard around the world.

“To be honest, (it’s) not for these moments that I play tennis,” he said, laughing, “I play tennis to play at the main tournaments.”

He added, “It's still a nice feeling, I did my best. I tried and we were able to win so that's the most important thing.”

From there, it was a seven hour flight to China for the Macau Tennis Masters. Rublev joined Kei Nishikori and Karolina Muchova on Michael Chang’s team, set to face off against Casper Ruud, Jerry Shang and Wang Xinyu on Team Li Na over the course of two days.

Despite battling jet lag Rublev was soon back to his winning ways, partnering Muchova to mixed doubles victory and defeating Shang in singles. All the while, Rublev displayed serve-bot levels of dominance on serve and regularly forayed to the net—encouraging signs of variety to his powerful baseline game that could spell trouble for his opponents in 2025.

And, as always, he still found time to sign countless autographs, staying on court for more than 10 minutes to greet tennis fans and snap selfies.

Rublev will be back in action in Macau tomorrow, before completing final preparations for the fast-approaching new season. Rublev is set to start the year at the Hong Kong Tennis Open—which kicks off on December 30—where he’s the top seed and defending champion.