Take Five: Noah Rubin

An elbow injury forced American Noah Rubin to miss significant action in the second half of 2019. The 23-year-old (he turns 24 on Feb. 21) had reached a career-high ranking of No. 125 in 2018, but he’s fallen to No. 269 as he works to get back into form.

Rubin was hoping for a boost with a home-court advantage at the New York Open. The Nassau Coliseum location on Long Island is 15 minutes from Rubin’s home. The 2014 Wimbledon junior champion won a first-round qualifying match Sunday against Mackenzie McDonald, but lost Monday to 38-year-old Paolo Lorenzi.

When Rubin isn’t playing, he’s talking tennis with other players for his popular podcast and Instagram account, Behind the Racquet.

We caught up with Rubin at the event.

Q. What can you take away from your two matches?

Noah Rubin: It was good to get my first match (Sunday). I mean that's one thing. I mean, I haven’t won a match this year yet, and it's been a few months coming at this point with the injury. I think (Lorenzi)'s been playing professional tennis longer than I've been alive. He’s one of the nicest guys on tour. It's unbelievable to have that mindset for that many years. Just being around him and just talking to him now is great.

Q. What positives can you take going forward?

Noah Rubin: I don’t think I’ve ever beat Mackie before, or maybe I did a while ago. Having that match under my belt is great. Definitely disappointed with some of the shots I came up with today at key points, but this is definitely going in the right direction. I mean, mindset-wise, if you got me two weeks ago, I would not be talking as positively as I was today. So, yeah, it's definitely some good things to take away from it.

Q. What’s next for you?

Noah Rubin: Yeah, you know, hoping to get into Delray. I think I’m a few out right now, even a wild card or alternate if I really need it. I put myself in a tricky situation at the end of last year, losing a lot of points and, you know, getting thrown into defending a final of a Challenger, and that’s how tennis works. …So it's very tough to plan, and I'm going to try to maximize whatever tournaments I have left at the ATP qualies level, and if I have to go back to the Futures level—and I've done that before, where I’ve finaled a Future and then won Tallahassee the next week and got a wild card into the French. So these things turn immediately, and you just have to keep playing and not get too discouraged.

Q. Some people think you’re getting away from professional tennis player to focus on your podcast. What do you say about that?

Noah Rubin: I think the podcast is the easiest thing I do (as a distraction from playing), but I'm actually glad you asked that question. I think the thing that's been bothering me the most, and I've gotten this countless times, is whether it's asking my co-producer on the podcast if you can’t ask questions like, “Is Noah stopping tennis? Is he quitting? Blah, blah, blah… " And that's just because I have Behind the Racquet, and I'm working so hard with that. But you know, I'm sick and tired of hearing that, to be honest. I have worked my whole life for tennis. Just because of a few losses and the steps back, does that mean I'm going to pull out just because I have this other endeavour? … It's actually motivated me. It’s gotten me to the right place mentally to play tennis. So, yeah, I had some setbacks, but I'm here playing.

Q. Now that you’re back on court, and looking back to when you started back up this season, what are your thoughts?

Noah Rubin: I rushed it. I really only played about a week before Christmas. … I just moved back to Long Island. So I just needed to be out there, I needed to play. Last week was the first week without pain. I'm definitely moving in the right direction. I'm going to keep on and just try to have fun with it.