Andrey Rublev produced an amusing facial expression when asked if winning the World Tennis League is the kind of moment he plays tennis for. The exhibition event returned for a third edition this weekend as four teams battled it out for victory in Abu Dhabi.

A host of the biggest tennis stars on the planet featured at the World Tennis League, with Nick Kyrgios, Casper Ruud and Iga Swiatek all in attendance.

Rublev, 27, joined Denis Shapovalov, Elena Rybakina and Caroline Garcia in the Falcons team as the four players eventually claimed silverware.

Rublev fired his side to victory after thrashing Sumit Nagal 6-1 in a one-set shootout on Sunday. And after the match, the 10-time Grand Slam quarter-finalist was asked in his on-court interview whether he played tennis “for these big moments”.

But Rublev had no desire to pay lip service to the exhibition event as he bluntly responded: “To be honest, not for these moments I play tennis. I play tennis to play at the main tournaments.”

He added: “It’s still a nice feeling, I did my best. I tried and we were able to win so that’s the most important thing.”

Rublev then touched on the team aspect of the event as he praised his Falcons colleagues. But he admitted the four players hadn’t spent any time together away from the court.

He explained: “There is no behind-the-scenes because we didn’t spend even one minute together outside of the bench.

“But I know the guys very well. I’ve known Denis since juniors, we played many matches. Elena and Caroline are super-nice girls – all of them are amazing players.”

Rublev endured a difficult 2024 on the court after reaching the quarter-finals of just one Grand Slam.

The star progressed to the last eight of the Australian Open at the start of the year but was then knocked out of the French Open in the third round. He failed to make it beyond the opening round of Wimbledon in the summer before falling in the fourth round at the US Open.

And in October he revealed he almost lost a testicle in a health scare as he explained: “I don’t know how to call it in a smart way but I can call it in a funny way, I almost lost my ball. I was lucky. I don’t know why I said, ‘Let’s go to hospital just to check why I feel a weird feeling’.

“They checked straight away and they took me as an emergency to do the surgery and then they were able to do the surgery in three or four hours after the first feeling I felt. So they were able to do everything good and in the end everything is great.

“The last thing before they made me sleep, I signed the paper saying they were allowed to amputate my ball – that was the last thing before the surgery that I saw.”