World No 1 Sinner suffers shock loss at Halle grass court event

News24

7 hours ago

Defending Halle champion Jannik Sinner suffered a surprising second-round defeat to Alexander Bublik
It was the Italian world No 1's first loss to a player outside the top 20 since 2023.
Sinner recently lost an epic French Open final to Carlos Alcaraz where he held three match points.
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Defending champion Jannik Sinner lost his second-round match on grass at Halle on Thursday 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 loss 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.
On Thursday, 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.
TAKE A BOW BUBLIK! 🤩
Alexander Bublik becomes the first player outside of the Top 20 to defeat Sinner since Cincinnati 2023 (Lajovic) #TWO25 pic.twitter.com/fdUKmcWCfU
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) June 19, 2025
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.