Photo Source: TTV
A few weeks ago, after Alexander Bublik stunned Jack Draper to reach his first Grand Slam quarterfinal at Roland-Garros, the talented Kazakhstani was knocked off by Jannik Sinner in the next round.
“Every fairytale comes to an end,” he said at the time.
On Thursday in Halle, Bublik started another fairytale.
The 27-year-old rallied from a set down to defeat World No.1 Sinner 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in a hotly conteted battle of the last two champions at the ATP 500 event in Germany.
How did Bublik manage to take down the defending champion?
“I don’t know,” he said. “I kept serving… I tried to be clutch… He’s an unbelievable player.”
Bublik stuck to his game plan: bomb serves, quick strikes, short points and elevated play when it mattered most, as he moved past the Italian in two hours and one minute. Sinner entered the match with a 19-2 record on the season, and the only player to earn a win against him was Carlos Alcaraz.
But the Italian couldn’t dominate Bublik in the baseline rallies and was broken once in the second set and once in the third set, which gave Bublik enough real estate to take charge.
“I just stayed there and tried to return as much as I could and serve aces so the ball doesn’t come back – it worked really well,” Bublik, who cracked 15 aces, said.
Bublik broke with a quick counter to a Sinner drive volley to take a 4-3 lead in the final set. He read the point perfectly and sent the winner – one of 36 on the day – flying past Sinner with interest.
From there he served out two holds to lock down his biggest career win.
“I know what I’m capable of,” the World No.43 said. “He gave me a chance. I had an amazing forehand to break in the third set and I just kept serving. I kept putting him in uncomfortable positions and it worked well.”
Bublik has now won four of his last seven meetings against Top-5-ranked players. But today’s win hits different. He was 0-3 against world No.1’s heading into today. “It’s a special one,” he said. “I had never beaten a World No.1 – I’ll take it.”
Bublik, the 2023 champion in Halle, will face Tomas Machac in the quarterfinals on Friday.