PARIS: Kazakhstan\u2019s trickster Alexander Bublik always brings a novel approach to his matches and off court too he defies convention, describing how a three-day trip to Las Vegas to let off steam helped turn around his year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 27-year-old reached the fourth round of a Grand Slam for only the second time in his career on Saturday as he beat Portugal\u2019s Henrique Rocha 7-5 6-1 6-2, setting up a clash with Briton\u2019s fifth seed Jack Draper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bublik reached a high of 17 in the rankings last year but dropped to 82 in March after a first-round exit at Indian Wells left him questioning whether he had what it took to compete with what he calls the tennis \u2018robots\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The answer? A trip to The Strip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTo be honest, my fall was not linked with lack of attitude and lack of practising. It was the exact opposite. I just burned out because I was waiting for the results to come,\u201d he told reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI was like, if I practise more, if I hit better forehands, it will come. It didn\u2019t, and then I got to the point, like, Okay, why am I sacrificing so much? For what?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMy coach suggests a trip to Vegas in between Indian Wells and Phoenix. He\u2019s like, \u2018man, if you play like this, we\u2019re going to be out of tennis, out of the conversation by Wimbledon.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Asked if the trip to the notorious Nevada playground was a training trip to Vegas or a Vegas trip to Vegas, Bublik said: \u201cNo, Vegas, Vegas, like a hangover thing Vegas, yeah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt was a good three days. I arrived three hours before the match in Phoenix. I had just let it all out. I said, I\u2019m useless now, I can\u2019t win a match, so let it be, let\u2019s see how it goes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What happened was that Bublik reached the final in the second-tier Challenger event and something clicked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During the claycourt season he made the fourth round in Madrid and won a Challenger in Turin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bublik, who describes himself as a normal guy, said he has accepted that he cannot compete with the world\u2019s very best on their terms, so has to bring something different to the table, be it underarm serves, through-the-leg returns or mind-boggling drop shots \u2014 all played with a smile on his face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m not a fighting person. In order for me to win against the best of the best, and I prove that I\u2019m capable of doing that, I have to find ways to outplay them because they will outwork me, outrun me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI also find the ways to win matches, to find a way how can I beat those guys with what I have, and I have a lot, in terms of an arsenal of shots, shot selections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSometimes I have to go for crazy shots, but this is the only option I have. Otherwise, what happened with me when I was 17 is that I tried to play (their game).\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PARIS: Kazakhstan\u2019s trickster Alexander Bublik always brings a novel approach to his matches and off court too he defies convention, describing how a three-day trip to Las Vegas to let off steam helped turn around his year. The 27-year-old reached the fourth round of a Grand Slam for only the second time in his career […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6155,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","inline_featured_image":false,"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_3859443944190656_798604363342440":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6154"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6156,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6154\/revisions\/6156"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}