Red-hot Alexander Bublik becomes a clay court king, wins second ATP tour title of the season at Swiss Open Gstaad

Alexander Bublik had a poor Wimbledon in comparison to his prior results but he is back in business winning Swiss Open Gstaad on Sunday afternoon.

Bublik saw off Juan Manuel Cerundolo who stunned Casper Ruud earlier in the week. The Kazakh won the final 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 winning 20 out of the last 23 matches.

He lost to Jaume Munar in five sets at Wimbledon earlier in the month after beating Daniil Medvedev in the final of Halle in late June. He was heralded by Medvedev as the player to avoid at Wimbledon but in the end he was well beaten by Munar.

At the French Open, he lost out to Jannik Sinner in the Quarter-Finals. This after he defeated James Duckworth, Alex de Minaur, Henrique Rocha and Jack Draper before being defeated by Sinner 6-1, 7-5, 6-0.

In the Swiss Alps, he maintained his composure after a poor second set which saw Cerundolo fight back to win his sixth ATP Tour singles title. He has gone 17-5 since Madrid alongside that 20-3 record. Although he was beaten by Munar, he saw off Alexander Shevchenko, Francisco Comesana, Arthur Cazaux and Cerundolo to seal the Gstaad title.

Bublik reached the final without dropping a set on what is his debut in the tournament. He had never faced Juan Manuel Cerundolo either. Not to be confused by his higher ranked brother who emerged into being one of the best clay court players in the world.

Bublik went into the final as the undeniable favourite due to his ranking and recent form and as is type, he dropped his serve almost immediately but broke back also straight away to wrap up the opening set.

He fended off four break points to open the second but Cerundolo started to have an ace in the hole as he extended rallies and wore him down. Bublik came back to 4-4 but dropped serve again and this only fueled the Cerundolo fire as he served out to force a deciding set.

Bublik turned it on again for the decider as he hit from the baseline supremely and won all 16 points behind his first serve. He won in two hours and eight minutes and his red-hot form sees him re-enter the top 30.

He heads to Kitzbuhel next week as he remains in Switzerland aiming for yet another title. A player who previously had the moniker as a bit of an entertainer solely as opposed to a player to watch, he has shimmied his way into contention as of late.

He has seemingly given up his showman roots and is mostly trying to play tennis nowadays which has given him a new steely resolve. One of which has seen him win titles and he likely will beckon towards the top 20 in the next few weeks which will see

Also he came early to prepare and it paid off instead of just going into the tournament half cooked. “It’s a beautiful place, but not the easiest conditions to play tennis,” reflected Bublik. “The ball is flying a bit, so I’m really happy that I came here earlier, last Saturday, to prepare."

Next up is Kitzbuhel like alluded to where he is top seed so he is more of a bigger fish as opposed to Gstaad where Casper Ruud albeit he was shocked by Cerundolo was the top seed and the one expected to win.

Cerundolo went up 28 spots to World No.81 as he had a superb week in losing out in the final. While many head to Washington and then Canada, Bublik's sojourn is heading to another part of Switzerland for another tournament as he aims to add a third title of the year and climb the rankings even further.

Match Statistics Cerundolo vs. Bublik