Bublik breaks through: Kazakh stuns Sinner for first win over world No.1

HALLE WESTFALEN, June 20 — Defending champion Jannik Sinner lost his second-round match on grass at Halle yesterday to Kazakhstan's Alexander Bublik, the Italian's first tournament since his French Open final defeat.
The world number one fell 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 to the 45th-ranked Bublik for the 23-year-old's first defeat to a player ranked outside the top 20 since the summer of 2023.
A few days before his defeat to Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz in the title match at the French Open, Sinner had easily dispatched Bublik in the quarter-finals at Roland Garros, dropping only six games.
Yesterday, 10 days before Wimbledon, Bublik claimed his second victory in six ties against Sinner.
'We are tennis players and we try to win every match we play but it is a special one,' Bublik said. 'I had never beaten a No. 1 in the world. It is an accomplishment.'
Sinner, who had beaten Yannick Hanfmann in straight sets in the first round, cruised through the first set against Bublik without facing a break point.
Sinner had three break points at the start of the second set but Bublik held and then went on the attack, hitting 20 winners in the set and gaining the break he needed in the sixth game.
The 28-year-old broke Sinner's serve in the third with a flashing forehand.
'I had an amazing forehand to break in the third set and then I kept serving,' Bublik 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. I just kept serving and putting him in uncomfortable positions and it worked well.'
'He is an unbelievable player and I was not thinking that I could beat him,' said Bublik. 'But I had a few chances and executed them well.'
The Kazakh will play Tomas Machac in the quarter-finals after the Czech beat Hungarian Fabian Marozsan 6-2, 6-3.
Earlier world number three Alexander Zverev rallied from a set down to see off Italy's Lorenzo Sonego.
The 28-year-old German won 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7/2) against the 46th-ranked Sonego and next plays another Italian, Flavio Cobolli for a place in the semi-finals.
A finalist in Halle in 2016 and 2017, Zverev recorded his fifth victory in as many meetings with Sonego, a year after beating him at the same stage of the same competition.
Sonego took advantage of his only chance to break in the first set at 4-3. The German struggled throughout to break his opponent's serve.
Zverev dug deep in the second set, leading 5-4, to win the set before dominating the tiebreak in the final set.
Argentina's 63rd ranked Tomas Martin Etcheverry also reached the quarter-finals after a three-hour duel against fourth seed Andrey Rublev 6-3, 6-7 (4/7), 7-6 (8/6).
The Argentine saved two match points in the tiebreak of the deciding set to set up a meeting with Russia's Karen Khachanov. — AFP

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