Tennis without borders
There is a saying «Sport is more than a game». It is truly capable of uniting people from different parts of not only a country, but the entire world. A good example of it is «Rublev Family Chat» (https://t.me/andreyrublevupdates), where people follow and discuss the latest news about a Russian tennis player Andrey Rublev. I talked to Tania, young Romanian, who created the chat, to find out more about her journey in tennis, her channel and many other things.
– Why tennis? How did you get into this type of sport?
– It's not very clear for me either why tennis became important to me.
Of course I knew about the Big 3 but I never got to see a match that would be interesting for me. In January 2019 I saw a couple of points between Federer and Tsitsipas at the «Australian Open» and witnessed a notable emotionality of a major tournament.
My second encounter with tennis was seeing the «Wimbledon» finals of the same year, won by Halep and Djokovic. I was on a vacation that summer and was very happy to see our most accomplished WTA player to earn her second Major.
But the real journey into following tennis started during the autumn of 2020 when «Roland Garros» was pushed due to the pandemic and I had the opportunity to watch both semifinals and final of the men side.
There was a definite point when the life changed. But at the same time I didn’t realize, how did I ended up there – it’s like destiny.
– Well, you started from Djokovic, Tsitsipas and Halep, but your channel is about Russian player Andrey Rublev. Why? What special or interesting is there about him?
– After «Roland Garros» finished I wanted to understand what goes through people's mind in such a lonely sport where decisions are being made in a couple of seconds. I mean, it’s definitely not just «bashing the balls»! This is how I entered the ATP website for the first time and found out that «Saint-Petersburg Open» was just commencing.
When I opened my sports channel the next day, the match that was unfolding was between Andrey Rublev and Ugo Humbert. At first my reaction was «Oh, a Russian playing at a home tournament, should be very exciting». I was very interested because I know that Russian sportsmen are considered the best in the majority of sports. The player’s name reminded me of a well-known Saint painter, Andrey Rublev, who's figure I studied a year ago in the university. The score ruled into Humbert's favor, but for some reason I had a hunch that Andrey will prevail. And it happened.
His humble nature in the after-match interview surprised me, because usually sportsmen look confident after a victory. And despite all the discussions about his emotional outbursts during a match, that's what also drew me closer towards him, because it completed my major curiosity I had at first: the emotions of a tennis player.
For me there was never two Andreys: on and off the court. He always seemed like a man that takes his work seriously and when you love what you do, passion is a requirement.
During that time, because of the pandemic, I didn’t see anything special in the way he treats his fans yet. But later I realized how important it was for him to leave the fans with something memorable. For me, as for an owner of a fan-account, those fan moments are always the most special material.
– Why and when did you decide to do something connected with Andrey in social media?
– After Andrey completed his performance at the «Nitto ATP Finals», there was a gap: now I had to wait until the February, because the pandemic kept pushing the official start of the season. I filled that gap with replays of the matches: for example, I managed to watch Andrey's journey in Hamburg. Some of them I was watching like a favorite TV series. By the end of January I felt that I understood tennis on another deeper level.
A victory of a Russian team at the «ATP Cup» was a blast for a start. I continued following Andrey's game with Rotterdam title, Dubai semis, Doha doubles and finally, his first Masters final at Monte-Carlo.
Before this tournament started, right after Miami, I got the first idea of creating an account where I would record all these great achievements, collect his interviews and also his team's observations. This is how I created @ game_rublev on Instagram*, because that was the most popular platform where fans were active, thoughts could be more easily shared and Andrey also displayed more activity.
But by May 2022 my original account that gathered over 3000 followers and for several times was also noticed by Andrey, got disabled due to some unknown reasons. Due to that, I made the Telegram channel right before Paris Masters. Of course at first it wasn't popular, but I was doing my job with passion and gained followers with time.
With time people from all over the world were chatting in the comments section – and the «Rublev Family Chat» was created. At some point conversations got beyond the tennis topics and turned out into the real friendship. Now there is a variety of topics based on the mood, openness, emotions due to a victory or a loss.
Now there are two chats: a public one and a private one. The second one was created for the members who bonded more closely to have an even safer space for sharing their thoughts and problems and building their friendship. And, of course, as a small virtual family, we are opened for new members. However, our chat is a small world which is managed not only by me, but by every member there. And if one day there will be someone like a «family member», showing kindness and love towards others, they for sure will be taken into consideration.
– Tell me a little bit about those who already participate in the chat.
– They are all different ages and nations. In the public chat I literally have members from every continent. Of course the biggest percentage of members is held by Russians, followed by Italians, Americans and Chinese.
I'm always surprised to see the huge number of Italian people naming Andrey as their favorite player. I can’t forget the strong support he had at «Nitto ATP Finals» in Turin back in 2022, when the crowd chanted his name like crazy during his semifinal with Ruud. He only gets the pure love and admiration towards him whenever he’s in Italy.
– I know that there were a couple of projects done for Andrey. Was there any feedback from him?
– There were of course a lot of projects done for him. The most notable is probably the one done with other fan accounts for his birthday. It was incredibly heartwarming to see Andrey's honest love for them.
My biggest project that turned out successful was a fan book along with another Andrey fan from Instagram*. We gathered messages of support from all over the world and put them in the album entitled «Don't stop believing - a fan book». It was handed to Andrey during Halle 2023 and, despite his usual shyness he had a lot of joy on his face, when he received the book. As we later learned from his interview, he was truly happy to get the album that he kept in his bag for most of the year.
– I would like to talk a little about some hard times in the chat. How does the chat reacts when something happens in the world? Speaking for example about what happened in Krokus.
– The reaction is obviously in taking care about each member's safety first, then trying to help on a more psychological and emotional level. Regarding the event of Krokus, we immediately made sure none of our members, their family or close friends was there. We felt the pain of helplessness and not being able to comfort each other when fear was at the peak.
But after the tension slightly faded, I was pleasantly surprised to see the strength within everyone gathered and tried to have easy and funny discussions. Chatting about abstract topics drew our mind, helped dealing with the tension and rejecting any negative thoughts.
It strengthened my belief that the chat turned into something bigger than just a space for talking about tennis. I thought that it will never be possible, because we will never see each other face to face. We were able to prove that love and kindness can break even geographical borders.
– That brings up the last, but probably the main question. There is a word «family» in the name of the chat. In your opinion, what actually makes all of these people, originally united by the game, almost relatives?
– Well, the correct answer is none other than «Rublev» obviously – we are the «Rublev family». We were united by Andrey's presence in our lives and we formed this strong bond based on his principles: «Sports brings people together» and «To be kind to the other».
It feels like Andrey planted seeds in our heart: through his tennis, his humble and valuable character. And those seeds grew into intertwined trees. Andrey remains the one that feeds us, but I'm sure that even beyond tennis a lot of connections will remain solid over time. It is more, than sport.
This is the magic of tennis. Despite some rollercoaster moments it brings, the love for the sport never changes. At least one person will always have the strength to build back the confidence when others are down. We became united, started supporting each other and taking care of each other. It’s actually «more than a game».
* – owned by Meta, extremist organization, canceled in Russian Federation
Text: Darya Ershova
Photos from personal archives of chat members
