Popular pro Andrey Rublev takes the next step in his career with a Monte Carlo championship comeback

WATCH: Our interview with the champion, Andrey Rublev, from Monte Carlo

“You’re too freakin’ young, man,” Andrey Rublev told Holger Rune after coming back from the brink of defeat to beat him, 5-7, 6-2, 7-5, in the Monte Carlo final on Sunday.

The words were meant to be complimentary. The 25-year-old Rublev was joking about how the 19-year-old Rune is too young to be so good, too young to already have a Masters 1000 to his name, too young to play so well against him in a final of this magnitude.

Yet Rublev was also, unintentionally, telling a truth about this match, and about Rune’s performance. The slogan that sums both of them up best might be: Youth giveth, but it can also taketh away.

It was Rune’s youthful bravado—i.e., his willingness to charge forward on important points—that won him the first set. But it was a typically violent teenage mood swing that sent him into the funk that cost him the second set. Down an early break, he began to rush from one point to the next as rapidly as possible; Rublev had to hold him up just to let the ball kids get back to their positions. Nor surprisingly, the set got away from Rune in a hurry.

The same pattern played out in the third. Rune showed that he has a short memory by immediately putting the second set behind him, and bounding out to a 4-1 lead. He hammered two forehands to break for 2-0. He pounded down two aces to hold for 4-1. He went up 0-30, and then break point, on Rublev’s serve in the next game. Rune looked to be the faster, stronger and more tactically varied player on the day, and looked sure to be the champion in a few minutes.

But as noted above, while youth can be served, but it can also be over-served. When Rune failed to break Rublev at 4-1, he didn’t calmly move on to the next game, as anyone in that position should. Instead, he glared at his player box. He ranted to himself, and at himself. He was much more agitated and fidgety than a man who is two games from a title needs to be.

That agitation soon spilled over into his play. Serving at 4-2, he double faulted twice, shanked a forehand, and sent a backhand long. At 3-4, he reached break point, but squandered it when a too-hasty drop shot caught the tape and fell back. At 5-5, Rune drilled two easy overheads into the net, and double faulted at break point. At 5-6, with Rublev serving for the match, he missed two makable returns. Meltdown complete.

“I gave it all. Didn’t have any more in me,” said Rune, who was coming off a long, late semifinal win over Jannik Sinner the previous day. “I did what I could, and I was very close.”

Through all of this, Rublev was as steady as he could be. He had his own rants, and his own glares at his player box, as he always does. He was especially galled by all of the shots that Rune was placing within a centimeter of the baseline. But like the relative veteran that he is, Rublev didn’t let his mood affect his level of play. He took heart from the openings that Rune gave him, and took advantage of every opportunity down the stretch.

For a guy who has been laboring for years to win his first Masters 1000 title, Rublev was cucumber-cool when he finally had a chance to serve for one. On the opening point, he rallied nervelessly, sent Rune back and forth across the baseline, and essentially sealed the title with a beautifully angled crosscourt backhand. But once the match was over, Rublev lost any veneer of cool, and let the emotions pout out. This was his 13th career title, but his first at a Masters 1000.

“After struggling so much, so many times, losing in the finals, semifinals, losing even earlier, yeah, struggled so much to win first 1000 Masters and finally I did it. I did it in Monaco with the really historic tournament,” he said.

“To win match like this, losing 4-1, love-30, break point for 5-1, and to be able to come back and to win a match is like a fairy tale.”

“Today I handle my emotions really well,” Rublev said, crediting new assistant coach Alberto Martin, who specializes in sports psychology, for helping him deal with “the stress moments.”

During the trophy ceremony, the Russian also credited the capacity Monte Carlo crowd, and made an oblique reference to the state of his nation, and its current reputation on the world stage.

“Being from a country where I am, to have so much international support means a lot,” Rublev said.

With his messages of “no war, please”; with his popularity among fans and fellow players; with his easygoing friendliness and sense of fair play; and today, with the perseverance he showed in winning his biggest career title, Rublev has more than earned the support of all of us.