Andrey Rublev made himself bleed by smashing his racquet on his knee and screamed at fans in yet another mid-match meltdown.

The No.6 seed took on Argentina’s Francisco Cerundolo in the second round of the Paris Masters and raced out to a 5-2 lead in the opening set.

However, Cerundolo mounted a thrilling comeback to take the first set to a tie-break, which he won 8-6.

Rublev once again built a sizeable buffer in the second and had a 4-2 lead, only for Cerundolo to stave off three break points and eventually take it to a second tiebreak.

The Argentinian wrapped up the contest with the first match point on offer to claim a 7-6 (8-6), 7-6 (7-5) win.

As good as Cerundolo was in the French capital, it was Rublev’s mid-match conduct that stole the headlines.

With a 5-3 lead in the first set but down 0-30 on his serve, Rublev fired a forehand into the net.

He immediately exploded in frustration towards the crowd behind him and screamed: “Shut up.”

Rublev’s anger was on full display in the third game of the second set when he sent another forehand into the net.

The Russian hammered his racquet onto his left knee a staggering seven times in anger.

Such was the force Rublev hit himself with, blood soon appeared from his knee.

Rublev’s destruction wasn’t done yet as he picked up a water bottle and hurled it at the ground during a break between games.

2

It is not the first time the 27-year-old has smashed his racquet on his left knee this year.

Rublev pulled the move at the French Open when he lost in straight sets to Matteo Arnaldi in the round of 32.

It happened again in the first round of Wimbledon when Rublev went down 6-4, 5-7, 6-2, 7-6 (7-5) to Francisco Comesana.

The defeat to Cerundolo also leaves Rublev, who recently opened up about how he was just hours away from losing a testicle, at serious risk of missing out on the ATP Finals.

Australian star Alex De Minaur, who sits tenth in the ATP rankings, is only 165 points behind Rublev and is also in action at the Paris Masters.

So too could world No.9 Grigor Dimitrov if he manages to pull off a string of impressive results at the tournament.

Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, Alexander Zverev and Daniil Medvedev have already locked up their spots for the season-ending tournament in Turin.