MOSCOW, November 25. /TASS, Andrey Kartashov/. Russian tennis star Andrey Rublev told TASS on Wednesday that season 2020 was the most successful in his career.

The 23-year-old Russian tennis player is the winner of seven ATP (the Association of Tennis Professionals) titles, of which five he landed this season. Rublev also played three times in the quarterfinals of the Grand Slam series tournaments, including two appearances this year.

"This season turned out to be the best so far," Rublev said in an interview with TASS. "The most important task at the moment is to keep progressing and to become better."

"I have a lot of things to improve," he continued. "I am totally motivated anticipating the start of the pre-season tournaments, which is due in a one-week time."

On Tuesday, Rublev told TASS he was happy to finish this year’s tennis season in the 8th place of the ATP Rankings and to debut at the ATP Finals in London earlier this month.

In his debut appearance at the ATP Finals annual tournaments, Rublev played three matches, defeating Austria’s Dominic Thiem and losing two encounters with Spain’s Rafael Nadal and Greece's Stefanos Tsitsipas.

The ATP Finals tournament was held between November 15 and 22, 2020 in London. The competition had $5.7 million in prize money up for grabs. This high-profile sporting event is now scheduled to move to Italy’s Turin in 2021.

Russia’s Daniil Medvedev won the 2020 ATP (the Association of Tennis Professionals) Finals tournament in London on November 22 beating Austria’s Dominic Thiem 4-6, 7-6 (7-2), 6-4.

Speaking about Medvedev’s win at the ATP Finals, Rublev told TASS on Wednesday that he admired the hard work of his compatriot.

"I have congratulated Daniil [Medvedev] on the victory; I texted him the next day after the final match," Rublev said. "Unfortunately, I did not get the chance of watching him play either in the semifinals or in the final, but I watched him playing against Novak Djokovic."

On his path to the final match, Medvedev enjoyed group stage victories over Serbian player Novak Djokovic, Diego Schwartzman of Argentina and Germany’s Alexander Zverev, before knocking out in the semifinals Spain’s Rafael Nadal and then Austria’s Thiem in the final encounter.

"The match against Djokovic boosted my respect of Daniil and the level of my admiration for him, as he is a real hard-worker and fighter," Rublev said. "He has completely deserved to be where he is at the moment."

Medvedev, 24, finished the 2020 tennis season in the 4th place of the ATP Rankings. Earlier this month, he grabbed his first title this season, winning the 2020 Paris Masters title. In his final match on November 8, the Russian tennis star snatched a comeback victory of 5-7, 6-4, 6-1 over Germany’s Alexander Zverev.

Medvedev is now the fourth Russian to win the Paris tournament, after Marat Safin (2000, 2002, 2004), Nikolai Davydenko (2006) and Karen Khachanov (2018).

In early September, Medvedev reached the semifinals stage of the 2020 US Open, where he lost in three sets to Dominic Thiem of Austria 2-6; 6-7 (7-9); 6-7 (5-7). The Austrian player eventually won the Grand Slam tournament in the United States defeating Germany’s Alexander Zverev in the final.

Medvedev made global headlines in the summer of 2019 with his maiden Grand Slam final appearance at the US Open, losing a dramatic five-set thriller to Spain’s Rafael Nadal.