It was a funny scene during the presentation ceremony at the 2026 Nordea Open, when Andrey Rublev was involved in a comical turn of events. The Russian player had won the match against Luciano Darderi to secure the title, but was apparently snubbed of a handshake during the prize ceremony.

Winning the title earned Rublev a watch from Sjoo Sandstrom, the Swedish company that is the official timekeeper of the Nordea Open. The incident occurred when one of the company’s representatives went to the podium to hand the watch to the new champion. After receiving the watch, Rublev extended his hand for a handshake with the company official, but the official did not notice the Russian’s hand and promptly left the stage. Rublev broke into a smile, realizing the comic timing of it all.

In his tournament campaign, Rublev entered Båstad as the top seed and played like one throughout the week. He got a bye in the first round, followed by a hard-fought three-set victory over Andrea Pellegrino in the second round. The top seed then blew past eighth-seeded Sebastian Baez in the quarterfinals in a straight-set victory, following which he secured another three-set win over Alejandro Tabilo in the semifinal.

The final was a great performance for the top seed, as he faced the defending champion, Darderi, and held his serve throughout the match. Rublev came through the pressure points, converting on timely break point opportunities to secure the victory.

This is Rublev’s second title in Båstad, having won in 2023, beating Casper Ruud in the final. Even though his game style of a powerful serve and strong groundstrokes makes him an ideal threat on hard courts, the Russian’s clay-court resume has been impressive over the years. He has reached twelve Tour-level finals on the surface, winning seven titles, which include Masters 1000 titles in Monte-Carlo and Madrid.

Winning the title at Båstad will give a lot of confidence to Rublev, ahead of the North American hard-court swing, as this was the Russian’s first title in almost one and a half years.

Andrey Rublev Wins a Title After More Than a Year

The last Tour-level success for Rublev came in March last year, when he won the Qatar Open. Since then, the Russian player has reached a couple of finals, including Barcelona this year, but could not cross the finish line. His inconsistent results saw him finish outside the World’s Top 10 at the end of the 2025 season, which was a first for the Russian since 2019.

2026 has seen slightly better results for the former World No. 5, who has three semifinal finishes and a runner-up finish in Barcelona before his win in Båstad. However, the inconsistencies remained, as he also had two first-round exits and four second-round exits this season. His latest first-round exit came at Wimbledon, where he lost to Roman Safiullin in a five-set thriller. He also had third- and fourth-round exits at the Australian Open and French Open, respectively.

The Båstad result saw him climb up from 16 to 14 on the ATP Rankings and be about 300 points adrift from the 11th-ranked Alexander Bublik. With the hard-court events coming up in a few weeks, the Russian will look to build on this form, especially his serving, which did wonders for him on clay. However, the challenge for him would be to manage his emotions, as, by his own admission, the Russian has fought his way out of a dark mental space to become one of the best players on Tour.