Rublev bleeds after wild meltdown as Djokovic retirement date tipped

Andrey Rublev made himself bleed during his defeat to Francisco Cerundolo on Tuesday. The No. 6 seed smashed his racquet into his knee during a wild meltdown in the first set.
Whilst leading 5-3 but down 0-30 on his serve, Rublev fired a forehand into the net before turning to the crowd and screaming: “Shut up!”

He failed to contain his frustration in the third game of the second set too when missing a simple shot, smashing his racquet onto his left knee seven times to draw blood. Rublev was ultimately beaten 7-6 (8-6), 7-6 (7-5).

Patrick McEnroe believes that Novak Djokovic may retire at the end of next year. He cited the emergence of Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner as the main reason why Djokovic may opt to bring the curtain down on his career whilst he is still fit and firing.

“I think this will be his last year, it’s got to be very tough to win more majors,” said McEnroe. “If the Australian Open starts tomorrow, he is the third favourite. That’s pretty solid. Rafa [Nadal] would have come back. Rafa wanted to play more and so did [Roger] Federer.

“They certainly didn’t think they had to win but they wanted to [play]. I think Novak would be the same.”