Russia's No. 2 men's singles player, Andrey Rublev, shared his impressions of staying in Almaty, where the ATP 250 hard-court tournament is being held, at a press conference in the city, the website infohub.kz reports.
The athlete, ranked 23rd in the world, is seeded fourth at the Almaty event. Rublev is in the city for the first time, though he has previously played at tournaments in Astana.
"One hundred percent, the tournament will feel more like home and special because of the atmosphere. My heart is here. I haven't had much chance to look around, since we trained every day and it's far to travel. When I stayed closer to the city center in the first days, I went to restaurants and had dinner. But going somewhere — unfortunately, that hasn't happened," a NUR.KZ correspondent quoted the tennis player as saying.
"Overall, this is my first time in Almaty, but I have been to Kazakhstan. I really like it here. Plus, the language makes it easy — everything feels like home, it's all great," Rublev said in response to a NUR.KZ question.
The Russian will begin his Almaty Open campaign in the second round. There he will face the winner of the match between France's Adrian Mannarino and Australia's Aleksandar Vukic.