No one has ever won a tournament like this before! How did Kazakh Bublik rewrite history in Montpellier?

The Kazakh tennis player Bublik was very pleased to win the tournament in Montpellier. He won his fourth career title at the well-attended tournament. However, he was very impressed with the way he fought his way to the trophy from the ATP 250 level tournament. What did the Kazakh tennis number one do well?

The Montpellier tournament

Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan managed to win the Montpellier tournament two years ago. This year he is one of the favourites here as well.

Denmark’s Rune was the number one favourite in France. He won his jubilee victory on the ATP circuit, but in the semi-finals he canceled his match with Croatian Coric and ended up in the gates of success.

It was the Kazakh tennis player who came through victorious. How did he dominate this ATP event in such a remarkable way?

Bublik and his journey through the tournament

Thanks to his seeding, Bublik avoided a first round match. Thus, his opening duel was the eighth round against Canadian Shapoval. This match started off quite tragically for Bublik.

He lost his very first serve, which he repeated soon afterwards, and after losing 1:6, he did not seem to be the favourite of the match anymore. In a tight second set, he was one ball away from elimination three times, but still won it for himself in the tiebreak and then took the deciding set.

The semi-final derby against Shevchenko started in the same way as the previous match. He lost his serve twice and, despite coming back in the first set by winning his opponent’s serves, he eventually fell 4: 6.

In this case, Bublik improved more markedly and won the next two sets without any shortened game. The semifinal match with another Canadian Auger-Aliassime had a completely similar course. The Kazakh won that one after sets 4:6, 6:4, 6:4

The final duel

Why change something that works so well? With a bit of exaggeration we can apply this motto to the final match of the twenty-six-year-old Kazakh.

His final opponent was Croatian Coric. Although Bublik went 3:0 up against his Monpellier habits, he still lost the opening set 5:7.

This fact, however, had a completely identical effect on him as in all his previous matches in this tournament. The Kazakh tennis player completely dominated the rest of the match, never losing his serve once and thus achieving his fourth career triumph.

For the first time in tennis history, the champion successfully turned the tide after losing the first set in all his matches at the tournament. The fact that Bublik faced three match points from his opponent in the very first game adds to the story of this Kazakh tennis player.

Source: ATP, Sportskeeda