If you look at the tennis calendar, you won't find a Masters played on grass courts. For years, tournaments in this category have only been held on clay (three per season) and hard courts (six outdoors, one indoors). At first glance, you may be surprised that a Grand Slam on grass courts exists, but not the Masters 1000. But the answer is simple. There are only three weeks between the Roland Garros final and first round of Wimbledon, and it's unrealistic to squeeze another major tournament into this gap without detracting from the other competitions. Since the Masters is mandatory for top players, they simply wouldn't go to other tournaments on grass courts before Wimbledon. Sponsorship and spectator interest in "small" starts would decline, and probably not even survive. But today, ATP 250 and ATP 500 tournaments more or less divide elite tennis players among themselves.
One of these tournaments is in Halle, Germany, and has already been held for the last 30 years. At one time, maestro Roger Federer was the local king with a record 10 titles and an alley named after him. Olympic champion Yevgeny Kafelnikov also won three times on the local courts. Tommy Haas won twice, and now Alexander Bublik has too.
Without a doubt, the 28-year-old Gatchina native is the third star of the last few weeks in tennis. Of course, after Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner. Following his recent quarter-final at the French Open, Bublik bulldozed the competition in Halle, where he last won the trophy in 2023. Moreover, en route to that final, Bublik also beat Sinner two years ago. In that decisive match he also had to take down a Russian, but this Sunday it was Daniil Medvedev instead of Andrey Rublev.
This recent victory over Sinner is especially important for Bublik, as he had never beaten a leader of the world rankings before. In fact, he had a 0-6 record against top-2 tennis players. The victory also came as a major blow to Sinner's 66-match winning streak against players outside the top 20, interrupting the streak that started in August 2023. Note that Yannick, nicknamed "the fox" as a child, arrived in Halle as the reigning champion. Bublik's ironic message on social media: "I almost got him guys" posted after his crushing defeat to the Italian in the Roland Garros quarterfinals now takes on new colours.
Before the semi-finals in Halle, organisers asked the tennis players to come up with nicknames for themselves during grass court matches. Bublik called himself a mosquito that wakes you up when you're trying to sleep. Medvedev is a lizard, Alexander Zverev is a vegan lion, and Karen Khachanov is a grasshopper. And it was precisely the grasshopper that stood in the way of the ex-Russian to the final. Ultimately, Bublik defeated Khachanov for the first time and prevented him from winning his 300th tournament victory, and went head-on against the last Russian he had never beaten (0-6 against Medvedev) and lifted his long-standing curse in two games. The 8th game of the first set shows Bublik at his finest on the opponent's serve. If you have the chance to watch the highlights, don't miss them!
Don't forget that Bublik was at both tournaments that took place last week: in London and Halle. At first he wasn't included in the main due to his low rating, so his only hope was that someone would withdraw. When the time came for the final choice, he ditched the British and went for the Germans. And the bet paid off! After the title in Halle, Bublik is back in the top 30 of the world rankings. And it's unlikely that any of the Wimbledon favourites will want to see Alexander coming for them. With such a varied and aggressive play style and emotional restraint on the court during the final, Bublik is quickly turning into a contender for the London crown himself.
