Alex de Minaur collapses as Alexander Bublik pulls off ‘most absurd tennis result of the year' at the French Open
The sun came out in Paris and the gloom descended for Alex de Minaur as his French Open bid was poleaxed by a superlative comeback from the mad, marvellous maverick Alexander Bublik.
So used to playing in damp and dreary conditions at Roland Garros, Australia's great hope looked energised by the lovely Roland Garros weather on Thursday as he swept into a two-set lead.
He looked just too fast, too focused and too professional for his eccentric Kazakh opponent.
But it only kicked the world No.62 Bublik into a no-holds-barred, nothing-to-lose boldness as he then stunned the world No.9 with a barrage of brilliant shotmaking to storm back to a 2-6 2-6 6-4 6-3 6-2 victory.
De Minaur had been primed to expect the unexpected from the 27-year-old Bublik but he couldn't have expected the transformation from the player who looked so lost for answers in the opening two sets to the one who then quite dominated for the final three.
It was a crushing blow for the 26-year-old Sydneysider, who had been enjoying his best clay-court season and had looked in the mood to at least try to emulate his breakthrough quarter-final appearance last year.
Bublik's win will have been all the sweeter after his last opponent, Australian James Duckworth, bluntly sided with his countryman when asked who would take out the second-round match.
'Demon will win,' he said.
Why so certain?
'Well, he's got one of the best return of serves in the world and he's lighting quick, so he's going to get to a lot more drop shots than I did,' Duckworth said.
'Then from the back, Demon wins most of the points. The weather's not overly hot, it's not playing particularly quick, so Bublik's gonna have to hit lines to win.'
Asked what it's like playing Bublik, Duckworth said: 'Well, it is unpredictable. Like you've got to be ready for everything.'
'You go into the match knowing that there could be an underarms, there could be, like, a drop shot from an obscure position, that he could just hit and come in randomly. That's his style, and that's worked for him,' he said.
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