Noah Rubin on His Perfect Player and Idols While Growing Up

American tennis star Noah Rubin created his perfect player and spoke about his idols while growing up in an interview published by the Essentially Sports website.

The 24 year old Rubin says, "James Blake is the American for me. Andre Agassi I always loved watching. I mimicked my backhand from Agassi. And then David Nalbandian, Leyton Hewitt. Huge fighters, people I loved watching. I’ve always loved the backhand side of the sport and they were great competitors."

Noah Rubin on his Perfect Player

On his prototype for the perfect player - the former Wimbledon junior champion picked out the following characteristics of fellow players to create his own perfect player - 

Serve - Nick Kyrgios or John Isner. Because Kyrgios serve is toughest, but Isner’s is incredible Forehand - James Blake Backhand - probably Novak Djokovic Fitness - Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal Returns - Novak Djokovic Volleys - Roger Federer Movement - Gael Monfils or myself Mentality - Rafael Nadal, David Ferrer

He is also the player responsible for the 'Behind the Racquet' initiative.

Speaking about his most memorable match, Rubin says, "It’s tough not to put Roger Federer in play. Beating John Isner was great. But I think my first Grand Slam win was Benoit Paire. 6, 6, and 6 first round of Australian Open is definitely up there as one of my best matches. But each match I play is one of my best for one reason or another."

Noah Rubin is a former Wimbledon junior singles champion and a former USTA junior national champion in both singles and doubles. Since turning pro in 2015, he has won four ATP Challenger titles. His career high ranking is No. 125 in the world singles rankings, and he is currently ranked outside the Top 200. As a junior, Rubin reached as high as no. 6 in the International Tennis Federation's world junior ranking and no. 1 in the United States in 2014. He qualified for the boys' singles tournament at Wimbledon in July 2014, and won the tournament in the first all-American final there since 1977 and was the first American boy to win Wimbledon since Donald Young in 2007. He had played only one other junior event in 2014 before Wimbledon at the French Open, where he lost in the second round..

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2Ypn1C6