US OPEN. Men´s singles. By Gabriel Matteazzi
Alexander Bublik reached the Round of 16 at the US Open for the first time in his career. He did it in thrilling fashion, outlasting local favorite and No. 14 seed Tommy Paul in a five-set marathon: 7-6 (7-5), 6-7 (4-7), 6-3, 6-7 (5-7), 6-1, after three hours and 38 minutes of play, finishing well past 1 a.m.
Next up for the Kazakh will be World No. 1 and defending champion Jannik Sinner. Although the head-to-head favors Sinner 4-2, Bublik has won two of their last three encounters — including a victory earlier this year on grass in Halle, also in the Round of 16.
As for his latest New York triumph, Bublik did not drop serve once throughout the entire match. In fact, he has yet to be broken at this US Open. True to his irreverent personality, though, he downplayed the feat: “I have no explanation. My next match is against Jannik, so I’ll probably lose a couple of service games.”