Alexander Bublik beats Daniil Medvedev to win Halle Open again
HALLE: Alexander Bublik finally defeated Daniil Medvedev 6-3, 7-6 (4) on Sunday to win the Halle Open for the second time.
It was his first win in seven matches with Medvedev.
"Daniil, I've been cursed to play you forever and never won a set in my life, but today I'm happy to get through, and I wish you – you're a great champion – I wish you a lot of success," Bublik told his opponent afterward. "I mean, to win, to beat you here, it's a privilege for me."
The Kazakhstan player, who also won the grass-court tournament in 2023, is just the third player to claim the title more than once after three-time winner Yevgeny Kafelnikov and 10-time champion Roger Federer.
Bublik made a strong start and put together a 12-point winning streak in the first set. The second was not quite as fluid with five double-faults, but Medvedev produced consecutive backhand errors in the tiebreaker and Bublik seized his chance to wrap up the match in 81 minutes.
Bublik, who defeated top-ranked Jannik Sinner in the second round, dedicated the title to his wife and son, who were absent because of illness.
"This is for you, I know you're watching," he said.
Medvedev, who saw off home favorite Alexander Zverev in the semifinals, was playing his first final since losing to Carlos Alcaraz at Indian Wells in March 2024.
"A better week, maybe, than we expected but not the best feeling in the end," Medvedev said. "We try to do better next time."
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Indian Express
21 hours ago
- Indian Express
Wimbledon preview: Carlos Alcaraz, tour-leading grass courter, vs Jannik Sinner, who has to prove he isn't one-dimensional
It is a good time to be Carlos Alcaraz. The 22-year-old defended his French Open title in epic fashion, producing one of the great comebacks in tennis history, to win a fifth Major title last month. He followed it up by adjusting to grass courts seamlessly, winning the title at the ATP 500 event at Queen's Club to arrive at Wimbledon, which starts Monday, as the two-time defending champion that is the bookmaker's favourite to complete a treble. The same cannot quite be said about Jannik Sinner. The defeat to Alcaraz in Paris, when he held three championship points, still rankles. It played on his mind as he slumped to what was only his fourth defeat since August last year, against the World No. 45 Alexander Bublik, at the Halle Open last week. The best, most dominant player in the world he may be, but a chink in his armour has been exposed by his biggest rival. Add to that the ignominy of having to serve a recent doping ban and that's plenty to play on a young man's mind. While Alcaraz and Sinner are not the only hopefuls at the Championships this month – the wily eight-time former champion Novak Djokovic and the fourth-seeded home favourite Jack Draper being the two main forces of opposition – it is hard not to make the focus of the entire men's draw at Wimbledon around the top two seeds. Sinner is level-headed, methodical and consistent but has shown signs of one-dimensionality. Alcaraz is charismatic, flashy and spontaneous but has shown signs of fragility even against opponents that are not of his calibre. The eye will be drawn magnetically to the two players as they march through the draw and attempt to set up yet another final showdown against one another. One can get insights into what transfers Alcaraz's natural clay strengths, and what makes him such a formidable presence at Wimbledon, from the comments of eight-time Major winner Andre Agassi. While on broadcast for the French Open earlier this month, Agassi said: 'Alcaraz's best surface to me, shockingly, would be between here and Wimbledon … I would say grass. Reason I would say grass has nothing to do with his swings. It has to do with the less diminishing speed that happens to him versus other players.' 'When he gets out there on the grass and then you bring in that UFO movement stuff, I mean, his second step is ridiculous and he believes in it so much he doesn't peel out defensively when you push him into corners,' he added. Agassi's comments stand to reason. Unlike other natural clay courters that have a preference to hit the ball high and deep, Alcaraz hits the ball flatter through the air and therefore feels no need to adjust to the low-bouncing grass. The balls still come right into his strike zone. His natural movement does not deter either. Again, unlike those that play mostly on the crushed brick, he does not merely slide into his shots to create angles, but he can make those instant adjustments and take those small steps on the skidding grass to open up the court for himself. Add to that elements of Alcaraz's playing style that already suit grass. He is adept at mixing in serve and volley, has the best disguised drop shot on tour, can play a good backhand slice, and after ramming big forehands, he likes to finish off points at the net. The sum of these parts creates, perhaps unexpectedly, a tour-leading grass courter. One of the defining losses of Sinner's career – before he became the match-winning machine he has been for the last 18 months – came back in 2022 at Wimbledon. After expertly blowing past Djokovic to create a two-set lead in their quarterfinal, he slumped to a defeat quite meekly. The immediate impression was that a mental fragility had been exposed, but later analysis proved that the Serb was able to slowly wear him down because he simply figured out Sinner's game plan – which, while effective, he does not move away from much. Darren Cahill, Sinner's coach, revealed as much while speaking on Andy Roddick's podcast recently. 'Novak got used to his ball, got used to the shape, got used to the pace and then just locked in, like Novak does, and doesn't miss. And won the last three sets reasonably easily,' he said. When he approached the Serb for feedback on the match, Djokovic would reply: 'Hits the ball great, but there's no variation. So you know, there's no shape on his shot. There's no height over the net. Doesn't come to the net. He's not trying to bring me in, I know that he returns well, but he's not attacking my serve on the return of serve.' In the three years since, there have been marked changes in Sinner's game, and while he has made huge improvements (especially on return of serve), the 'no variation' tag still persists. It explains his recent struggles against the spontaneous spark of Alcaraz (he has lost each of their last five match) and why, for the Italian – a natural hard courter – the shift to grass may be the biggest adjustment. Not just in movement or groundstrokes, but mindset. Attacking variety is the most useful tool on this surface and while the concept of mixing his game up is not alien to Sinner, the execution is often muddled. He approaches the net but without much conviction, he hits the drop shot only at the perfect moments, he throws in the slice only as a rally shot, and he hardly veers from pre-planned serving strategy, never just throwing in a body or a kick serve to surprise an opponent. A little bit of variety will go a long way for the hard-hitting Italian, whose sublime baseline game remains the best in the world, decisively superior than that of even Alcaraz. And his rival is not perfect either, Alcaraz's weaker serve – there have been recent improvements, he hit as many as 18 aces in the Queens final – can be targeted and his tendency to let his focus fall in long matches will always create opportunities. The excitement around this burgeoning rivalry is not just created by the sky-high talents of the two young players, but also that, presently, they are working through their faults too. The expectations for these two to face off will once again fill the air during the most vaunted fortnight of the tennis calendar starting Monday.
The Hindu
2 days ago
- The Hindu
Exploring why nobody wants to face Alexander Bublik on Wimbledon's grass courts
After losing to Alexander Bublik in the final of Halle, former World No. 1 and 2021 US Open champion Daniil Medvedev paid his opponent the ultimate veiled compliment. Congratulating Bublik, Medvedev said, 'Keep playing like that, I hope you're in Carlos [Alcaraz's side of the] draw at Wimbledon. Please, Carlos or Jannik [Sinner's] side of the draw at Wimbledon!' It's a sentiment many others on the ATP Tour share. Bublik is a player other players don't fancy facing, but one they hope will take out a big name or two, thus clearing their own path. The 6'5' Bublik owns a monster serve, a punishing forehand and a dizzying array of drops, slices and trickshots. At his best, he can take the racquet out of his opponent's hand. But even at his worst — he is prone to ups and downs — he is a disarming, distracting handful. Expect the unexpected Indeed, Aleksandar Kovacevic, who defeated Bublik in Montpellier earlier this year, found himself confronted by a string of successful underarm serves at one stage and a bemused ball boy, who Bublik handed his racquet to, at another. 'I was not expecting to play against the ball kid, but you always know there's going to be something funny with him [Bublik],' Kovacevic said. 'It's not the first time he's having fun out here. It's not a bad thing. But for me, obviously, and for any opponent that he has, it's important to stay locked in and focus.' It's not Bublik's worst his rivals are fearing ahead of Wimbledon, however. The 28-year-old heads to London on the back of his best Major run and in possession of his second Halle title. ALSO READ | Wimbledon 2025 preview: Sinner, Djokovic plot to prevent Alcaraz hat-trick At Roland-Garros, Bublik made history, becoming the first male player representing Kazakhstan to enter the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam singles event. It was a remarkable performance for the quality of players he defeated but also for the fact that it came on clay, a surface that doesn't play to his strengths. 'I hate clay, I hope not to step on it for the next ten years,' he said before the tournament. 'I hope the clay-court season ends soon so I can play on grass.' But Bublik found his footing on Paris' red dirt to beat Alex de Minaur from two sets down and Jack Draper from a set down. Both were inspired victories. De Minaur, a particularly difficult man to put away because of his exceptional footspeed, was on a streak of four consecutive appearances in Major quarterfinals. Draper was the fifth seed on the back of a strong run during which he won the Indian Wells title and reached the Madrid Open final. Back on his favourite grass, Bublik showed just what a threat he can be on a fast, slippery surface. He became the first man not named Alcaraz to beat World No. 1 Sinner in 49 matches. He extracted a measure of revenge for the quarterfinal loss at Roland-Garros with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory. It was Bublik's second win over Sinner in six matches, both coming on Halle's grass. ALSO READ | New-look Wimbledon prepares for life without line judges Bublik saved three break points in the first game of the second set before gaining the crucial break to lead 4-2 and smashed three aces when holding serve to force the decider where a break to go 4-3 up proved decisive. 'It's a special one — I had never beaten the top one [No. 1] in the world, that's an accomplishment,' said Bublik, who struck 36 winners, including 15 aces. 'It's a very fast surface, so I had for certain a better chance than at Roland-Garros. I tried to be clutch. I just kept serving and putting him in uncomfortable positions. Tried to return as much as I could. Serve aces so the ball doesn't come back. It worked well.' New maturity Bublik continued to serve big and rip winners on his way to the final, where he had a mental obstacle to overcome. He had lost his six previous meetings against Medvedev, winning only one set in the process, but produced a superb exhibition of grass-court tennis to end that streak. So often the showman, Bublik showed his new maturity with a calm 6-3, 7-6(4) victory. 'I was cursed against you, Daniil,' he said in the post-match ceremony. 'From the mental point of view, that's the toughest match I ever played in my life. I have never beaten Daniil. He's a super tough player to play, especially with my gamestyle, and today everything clicked, mentally and physically. That's one of the wins of my career.' The Halle triumph certainly made many in the tennis world sit up and take notice. ALSO READ | Plotting the contours of the Alcaraz-Sinner rivalry: Men's tennis' new main-event Andy Roddick, a three-time runner-up at Wimbledon, likened Bublik's unconventional style to former World No. 8 Radek Stepanek's. Both players, he said, kept opponents off-balance on grass because they always carried the threat of rushing the net, 'except Bublik kind of hits the ball bigger'. Roddick also said Bublik is 'among the 10-15 best grass-court players if he is in form and engaged'. Three-time Wimbledon champion Boris Becker liked what he saw from Bublik in the Halle final, calling it 'great grass-court play' which made his heart 'beat a little faster'. Bublik will enter Wimbledon feeling completely different mentally to what he did a year ago. Ranked as high as No. 17 last June, he experienced a slump that left him outside the top-80. 'I had such tough months from last Wimbledon to probably this summer,' said Bublik, who climbed 15 places to World No. 30 after his Halle triumph. 'I was close to calling it quits after Wimbledon because I was not enjoying it. I dropped in the rankings and I didn't know why. I didn't want to play, I had no joy. Now this is happening. Quarters at the French. Winner here. It's beyond my wildest dreams of what I could achieve. It has been a big renaissance of my career.' Harnessing unorthodoxy In addition to rediscovering the joy of playing, Bublik has also found a way over the last month to extract the most from his unorthodox game. The key has been using his serve to platform his variety, touch and guile. As he said, 'On grass, if you lose your serve, it is maybe tough and I am a guy who doesn't lose a lot of serves. 'If Bublik can serve to potential and hold his nerve, he will be a threat on Wimbledon's lawns. He will know that he can improve on his round-of-16 appearance in 2023, but he isn't getting ahead of himself. 'Tennis is a brutal sport,' he said. 'When I was ranked 17th in the world, I started treating it like a job, a sport that was too demanding. But this isn't track and field, it's not a race against time. There's a ball, and you can do anything with it. That — you must never forget.'
New Indian Express
6 days ago
- New Indian Express
Alexander Bublik beats Daniil Medvedev to win Halle Open again
HALLE: Alexander Bublik finally defeated Daniil Medvedev 6-3, 7-6 (4) on Sunday to win the Halle Open for the second time. It was his first win in seven matches with Medvedev. "Daniil, I've been cursed to play you forever and never won a set in my life, but today I'm happy to get through, and I wish you – you're a great champion – I wish you a lot of success," Bublik told his opponent afterward. "I mean, to win, to beat you here, it's a privilege for me." The Kazakhstan player, who also won the grass-court tournament in 2023, is just the third player to claim the title more than once after three-time winner Yevgeny Kafelnikov and 10-time champion Roger Federer. Bublik made a strong start and put together a 12-point winning streak in the first set. The second was not quite as fluid with five double-faults, but Medvedev produced consecutive backhand errors in the tiebreaker and Bublik seized his chance to wrap up the match in 81 minutes. Bublik, who defeated top-ranked Jannik Sinner in the second round, dedicated the title to his wife and son, who were absent because of illness. "This is for you, I know you're watching," he said. Medvedev, who saw off home favorite Alexander Zverev in the semifinals, was playing his first final since losing to Carlos Alcaraz at Indian Wells in March 2024. "A better week, maybe, than we expected but not the best feeling in the end," Medvedev said. "We try to do better next time."
