Kazakhstan’s Alexander Bublik is known for not taking himself too seriously on the courts. He entertains the crowd with his hilarious antics and interviews post matches.
After outclassing America’s Ben Shelton on Monday (April 29) at the ongoing Mutua Madrid Open, Bublik complained about how it was tough for him to wake up in the morning to play matches. He credited his body clock for waking him up in the second set to secure the win over the American 3-6, 7-6(7-2), 6-4.
The key was just to wake up. 11 o'clock start is pretty rough for me. I played maybe twice this year at 11 o'clock. I got victorious on both occasions, but it’s tough to work at 11, not really used to doing that. Alexander Bublik said after the match
Bublik said he woke up at 7 but feels a professional tennis player should relax more in life, and doesn’t need to wake up at 7 in the morning. The 26-year-old added that he kept an eye on his watch during the match, thinking his body would start operating after 30–40 minutes.
Alexander Bublik’s coach is more relaxed than him
Alexander Bublik explained his coach Artem Suprunov is more relaxed than him, even abandoned him in Madrid, and will not coach him in Rome as well, but will be back for the French Open. Bublik said there’s no bad blood as he prefers to keep things this way, pointing out how it worked for four years.
He told me today, 'Man, I have to go home'. I said, Well we have Masters, I have this one and Rome. He said, 'Brother have to go home Brother. With all due respect, play yourself, I’ll see you before the French. Alexander Bublik said
The Kazakh will face Russia’s Daniil Medvedev, who also has a reputation for joking during and after matches. Medvedev, during his Round of 32 match against America’s Sebastian Korda in the Madrid Open, argued with the umpire for not closing the roof. He asked the umpire whether The Illuminati made the decision to close the roof.
Bublik will meet Medvedev for the sixth time and will look to defeat the Russian for the first time. Medvedev leads the head-to-head record 5-0. They last met at the Dubai Open, while their first meeting on clay was at the 2021 Roland Garros.
Bublik won one title this season, the Open Sud de France title, by beating Borna Coric and reached the Dubai Open final as well, but couldn’t defeat Ugo Humbert.
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