Alexander Bublik Cracks Top 10 With Hong Kong Title

Alexander Bublik won the Hong Kong Open on Sunday in straight sets, a win that will see the Kazakhstani star break into the Top 10 for the first time, just ahead of the Australian Open.

Bublik defeated Italy’s World #7, Lorenzo Musetti,  7-6(2) 6-3, marking an impressive start to his season. The 28-year-old continued his strong performance following a successful 2025, in which he secured four titles and achieved a career-best ranking of 11th.

Last year, Bublik was eliminated in the first round of the Australian Open and saw his ranking drop from 37th to 82nd a few months later.

However, his ascent in the rankings has been a long-awaited milestone. He entered the Top 100 in 2017, reached the Top 50 in 2019, broke into the Top 20 in 2024, and now has made it to the top ten.

This accomplishment follows an impressive streak: he has won 34 of his last 43 matches since May of last year, including titles in Halle, Gstaad, Kitzbuhel, and Hangzhou. He dropped just one set on his way to the Hong Kong title.

Securing the title in Hong Kong was no simple task, though, as he had to rally after dropping a set against American Marcos Giron in the semifinals, and the first set of the final against Musetti was a tightly contested battle, where Bublik had to fend off break points before sneaking the set in a tie-break.

Once he secured the first set, Bublik’s performance began to flow smoothly, as he claimed four out of the last five games to finish the match in an hour and 38 minutes.

Musetti, on the other hand, faced disappointment after his seventh consecutive loss in an ATP final, dating back to his last title in Naples in 2022. Despite the loss, Musetti will rise in the rankings, surpassing Alex de Minaur and Felix Auger-Aliassime to enter the Top 5 for the first time on Monday.

He will become the third Italian to reach this milestone, following in the footsteps of Jannik Sinner and Adriano Panatta.