“How can I beat him? I don’t know. I will just go there, enjoy the time, show what I’m capable of showing.” That was what Alexander Bublik said before his fourth-round match against World No. 5 Jack Draper. He had nothing to lose, but a lot to show. The Kazakh had compared Draper to a UFC fighter ahead of the match. But once on court, it was Bublik who landed the knockout blow. In a match lasting two hours and 34 minutes, Bublik pulled off one of the biggest shocks of the tournament. The World No. 62 stunned the Brit with a 5-7, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 win. With that he also achieved a major personal milestone. It was a moment that brought out every ounce of emotion.
Alexander Bublik brought the flair. The drop shots. The wild angles. The cheeky winners. Everything came together for him on Court Simonne-Mathieu. He dropped the first set but responded in style. In the final set, he saved five break points and needed two match points to close it out.
Let’s rewind a bit. Just a year ago, Bublik was in the Top 20. But his form dipped, and by March 2025, he was outside the Top 80. It looked like things were slipping away fast. But the clay season brought a swing. The Kazakh reached the final at the Phoenix Challenger, finishing runner-up to rising tennis star Joao Fonseca. Then came Madrid. Bublik knocked out World No.15 Andrey Rublev to reach the round of 16. A week later, he won the Turin Challenger. That set the tone.
And at Roland Garros, he’s only gotten better. He started by beating James Duckworth in straight sets. Next came a dramatic win over 9th seed Alex De Minaur. The 27-year-old came back from two sets down in that one. In the third round, he breezed past Henrique Rocha 7-5, 6-1, 6-2. And then came the Draper shocker.
And with that, he made history. Alexander Bublik is now the first Kazakh man to reach a Grand Slam quarterfinal. After the winning point, he fell flat on his back on the clay, in tears at his monumental achievement.
Bublik getting emotional after his huge win #RolandGarros pic.twitter.com/vWy67qvaf1
— Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) June 2, 2025
“Sometimes in life there is only one chance, and today, I think it was mine,” said Bublik after his win. “I couldn’t let it slip. I think it is the best moment of my life.”
So, what changed? Alexander Bublik points to a surprise trip that hit the reset button.
How a trip to Las Vegas helped Alexander Bublik
After climbing to a career high of No. 17 last year, Alexander Bublik felt he had to become more serious. He trained harder, cleaned up his diet, skipped the parties. But instead of results, he hit burnout. “Right now everybody is like robots, and they’re just crazy, crazy performance guys. Then I did it. Unfortunately, to be honest, my fall was not linked with lack of attitude and lack of practicing. It was the exact opposite. I just burned out because I was waiting for the results to come,” the Kazakh tennis star told reporters in Paris.
He bowed out in the first round at Indian Wells. He had a 2-8 win-loss record till then. That’s when his coach, Artem Suprunov, had an idea: a trip to Las Vegas. So they drove to the Sin City and stayed there for three days before the Phoenix Challenger. “I said, ‘Okay, let’s go to Vegas.’ We enjoy. We change the racket. We did many things. I said, Okay, if it goes, it goes. If not, thank you very much, tennis, and it worked,” Bublik said.
Now, he’s two wins away from the final. Next, he’ll face either Jannik Sinner or Andrey Rublev for a spot in the semis. Alexander Bublik’s dream run continues to light up Paris. Can the Kazakh magician pull off another trick? What do you think?
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