Latest news with #Challenger
France 24
3 hours ago
- Sport
- France 24
Bublik credits Las Vegas bender after securing French Open last 16 berth
Russian-born Bublik eased past Portugal's Henrique Rocha 7-5, 6-1, 6-2 to reach the final 16 in Paris for the first time on his seventh attempt, and next meets British fifth seed Jack Draper. Bublik reached a career-high of 17 in the rankings last year but had dropped as low as 82 by March 2025, blaming burn-out for his slump down the rankings. "Like right now everybody is like robots, and they're just crazy, crazy performance guys," the 27-year-old told journalists. "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. "You know, I never thought I could make it to the top 20. I made it to 17. Then, you know, I'm, like, okay, I have to do this and that, I have to practice harder. "I mean, work on my diet, stop drinking, stop partying. Have to be a more professional soldier, I would say, as we are in a game." Bublik said a trip to Las Vegas was suggested after his coach said something drastic needed to be done. "He's like, 'Man, if you play like this, we're just going to be out of tennis, of the conversation by Wimbledon'. "I said, 'Okay, let's go to Vegas'. We enjoy. We change the racquet. We did many things. I said, 'Okay, if it goes, it goes. If not, thank you very much, tennis'. "And it worked!" Asked if it was a training trip to Vegas, world number 62, Bublik replied: "No, Vegas, Vegas, like a Hangover-thing (2009 film) Vegas, yeah. "So it was a good three days in Vegas." Bublik said he eventually got his confidence back playing a few Challenger events, winning in Turin last March. In Paris, the Kazakh rallied from two sets down in the second round to dispatch ninth-seeded Australian Alex de Minaur 2-6, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-2 on Thursday. The Monaco-based player next plays world number five Draper who has won their two previous meetings in Adelaide last year and Queens in 2021. "Jack for me is insane. I mean, last year the guy is 40 in the world," said Bublik. "This year he is top 4, top 5 in the world. That's a crazy achievement. He doesn't seem to stop, so I mean, what do I have to do to beat him? I don't know. "I will just go there, enjoy the time, show what I'm capable of showing, and we all know what I'm capable of doing on court and then we see how it goes. This is the approach I have now." © 2025 AFP
Hindustan Times
4 hours ago
- Sport
- Hindustan Times
Bublik credits Las Vegas bender after securing French Open last 16 berth
Alexander Bublik credited a trip to Las Vegas with helping him overcome burn-out as the Kazakh advanced to the fourth round of the French Open on Saturday. Russian-born Bublik eased past Portugal's Henrique Rocha 7-5, 6-1, 6-2 to reach the final 16 in Paris for the first time on his seventh attempt, and next meets British fifth seed Jack Draper. Bublik reached a career-high of 17 in the rankings last year but had dropped as low as 82 by March 2025, blaming burn-out for his slump down the rankings. "Like right now everybody is like robots, and they're just crazy, crazy performance guys," the 27-year-old told journalists. "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. "You know, I never thought I could make it to the top 20. I made it to 17. Then, you know, I'm, like, okay, I have to do this and that, I have to practice harder. "I mean, work on my diet, stop drinking, stop partying. Have to be a more professional soldier, I would say, as we are in a game." Bublik said a trip to Las Vegas was suggested after his coach said something drastic needed to be done. "He's like, 'Man, if you play like this, we're just going to be out of tennis, of the conversation by Wimbledon'. "I said, 'Okay, let's go to Vegas'. We enjoy. We change the racquet. We did many things. I said, 'Okay, if it goes, it goes. If not, thank you very much, tennis'. "And it worked!" Asked if it was a training trip to Vegas, world number 62, Bublik replied: "No, Vegas, Vegas, like a Hangover-thing Vegas, yeah. "So it was a good three days in Vegas." Bublik said he eventually got his confidence back playing a few Challenger events, winning in Turin last March. In Paris, the Kazakh rallied from two sets down in the second round to dispatch ninth-seeded Australian Alex de Minaur 2-6, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-2 on Thursday. The Monaco-based player next plays world number five Draper who has won their two previous meetings in Adelaide last year and Queens in 2021. "Jack for me is insane. I mean, last year the guy is 40 in the world," said Bublik. "This year he is top 4, top 5 in the world. That's a crazy achievement. He doesn't seem to stop, so I mean, what do I have to do to beat him? I don't know. "I will just go there, enjoy the time, show what I'm capable of showing, and we all know what I'm capable of doing on court and then we see how it goes. This is the approach I have now." ea/nf
Straits Times
5 hours ago
- Sport
- Straits Times
Bublik says Vegas trip helped him compete with the robots
Tennis - French Open - Roland Garros, Paris, France - May 29, 2025 Kazakhstan's Alexander Bublik in action during his second round match against Australia's Alex de Minaur REUTERS/Lisi Niesner PARIS - Kazakhstan's trickster Alexander Bublik always brings a novel approach to his matches and off court too he defies convention, describing how a three-day trip to Las Vegas to let off steam helped turn around his year. The 27-year-old reached the fourth round of a Grand Slam for only the second time in his career on Saturday as he beat Portugal's Henrique Rocha 7-5 6-1 6-2, setting up a clash with Briton's fifth seed Jack Draper. Bublik reached a high of 17 in the rankings last year but dropped to 82 in March after a first-round exit at Indian Wells left him questioning whether he had what it took to compete with what he calls the tennis 'robots'. The answer? A trip to The Strip. "To be honest, my fall was not linked with lack of attitude and lack of practising. It was the exact opposite. I just burned out because I was waiting for the results to come," he told reporters. "I was like, if I practise more, if I hit better forehands, it will come. It didn't, and then I got to the point, like, Okay, why am I sacrificing so much? For what? "My coach suggests a trip to Vegas in between Indian Wells and Phoenix. He's like, 'man, if you play like this, we're going to be out of tennis, out of the conversation by Wimbledon." Asked if the trip to the notorious Nevada playground was a training trip to Vegas or a Vegas trip to Vegas, Bublik said: "No, Vegas, Vegas, like a hangover thing Vegas, yeah. "It was a good three days. I arrived three hours before the match in Phoenix. I had just let it all out. I said, I'm useless now, I can't win a match, so let it be, let's see how it goes." What happened was that Bublik reached the final in the second-tier Challenger event and something clicked. During the claycourt season he made the fourth round in Madrid and won a Challenger in Turin. Bublik, who describes himself as a normal guy, said he has accepted that he cannot compete with the world's very best on their terms, so has to bring something different to the table, be it underarm serves, through-the-leg returns or mind-boggling drop shots -- all played with a smile on his face. "I'm not a fighting person. In order for me to win against the best of the best, and I prove that I'm capable of doing that, I have to find ways to outplay them because they will outwork me, outrun me," he said. "I also find the ways to win matches, to find a way how can I beat those guys with what I have, and I have a lot, in terms of an arsenal of shots, shot selections. "Sometimes I have to go for crazy shots, but this is the only option I have. Otherwise, what happened with me when I was 17 is that I tried to play (their game)." In an age of sports science, endless gym work and nutrition plans, Bublik bucks the trend and do not expect him to enter a war of attrition with Draper. "Jack for me is insane. I saw him first day here. I'm like, are you getting ready for UFC?" Bublik said. "Last year the guy is 40 in the world, this year he is top four, that's a crazy achievement. How can I beat him? I don't know. I will just go there, enjoy the time, show what I'm capable of showing." REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
The Star
5 hours ago
- Sport
- The Star
Tennis-Bublik says Vegas trip helped him compete with the robots
Tennis - French Open - Roland Garros, Paris, France - May 29, 2025 Kazakhstan's Alexander Bublik reacts during his second round match against Australia's Alex de Minaur REUTERS/Lisi Niesner PARIS (Reuters) -Kazakhstan's trickster Alexander Bublik always brings a novel approach to his matches and off court too he defies convention, describing how a three-day trip to Las Vegas to let off steam helped turn around his year. The 27-year-old reached the fourth round of a Grand Slam for only the second time in his career on Saturday as he beat Portugal's Henrique Rocha 7-5 6-1 6-2, setting up a clash with Briton's fifth seed Jack Draper. Bublik reached a high of 17 in the rankings last year but dropped to 82 in March after a first-round exit at Indian Wells left him questioning whether he had what it took to compete with what he calls the tennis 'robots'. The answer? A trip to The Strip. "To be honest, my fall was not linked with lack of attitude and lack of practising. It was the exact opposite. I just burned out because I was waiting for the results to come," he told reporters. "I was like, if I practise more, if I hit better forehands, it will come. It didn't, and then I got to the point, like, Okay, why am I sacrificing so much? For what? "My coach suggests a trip to Vegas in between Indian Wells and Phoenix. He's like, 'man, if you play like this, we're going to be out of tennis, out of the conversation by Wimbledon." Asked if the trip to the notorious Nevada playground was a training trip to Vegas or a Vegas trip to Vegas, Bublik said: "No, Vegas, Vegas, like a hangover thing Vegas, yeah. "It was a good three days. I arrived three hours before the match in Phoenix. I had just let it all out. I said, I'm useless now, I can't win a match, so let it be, let's see how it goes." What happened was that Bublik reached the final in the second-tier Challenger event and something clicked. During the claycourt season he made the fourth round in Madrid and won a Challenger in Turin. Bublik, who describes himself as a normal guy, said he has accepted that he cannot compete with the world's very best on their terms, so has to bring something different to the table, be it underarm serves, through-the-leg returns or mind-boggling drop shots -- all played with a smile on his face. "I'm not a fighting person. In order for me to win against the best of the best, and I prove that I'm capable of doing that, I have to find ways to outplay them because they will outwork me, outrun me," he said. "I also find the ways to win matches, to find a way how can I beat those guys with what I have, and I have a lot, in terms of an arsenal of shots, shot selections. "Sometimes I have to go for crazy shots, but this is the only option I have. Otherwise, what happened with me when I was 17 is that I tried to play (their game)." In an age of sports science, endless gym work and nutrition plans, Bublik bucks the trend and do not expect him to enter a war of attrition with Draper. "Jack for me is insane. I saw him first day here. I'm like, are you getting ready for UFC?" Bublik said. "Last year the guy is 40 in the world, this year he is top four, that's a crazy achievement. How can I beat him? I don't know. I will just go there, enjoy the time, show what I'm capable of showing." (Reporting by Martyn HermanEditing by Toby Davis)
National Geographic
a day ago
- Science
- National Geographic
How Sally Ride blazed a trail for women in space
In June 1983, this barrier-breaking astronaut overcame discriminatory policies—and a sexist society—as the first American woman to launch into orbit. Sally Ride sits in the aft flight deck mission specialist's seat during deorbit preparations. On June 18, 1983, Sally Ride became the first American woman to fly in space when the space shuttle Challenger launched on mission STS-7. As one of the three mission specialists on the mission, Ride played a vital role in helping the crew deploy communications satellites, conduct experiments, and make use of the first Shuttle Pallet Satellite. On June 18, 1983, Sally Ride would become the first American woman to launch into space. She had already survived NASA's grueling training and a barrage of tests, but there was another hurdle to cross before she boarded the Challenger space shuttle—overcoming the scrutiny of the media and the public. In the lead-up to the launch, the astronaut fielded questions about menstruation, fashion, and even whether she might cry in space. Despite long-standing biases about women's ability to withstand the rigors of space flight, here's how Sally Ride broke barriers—and changed the face of the space program along the way. Dive into Ride's journey with the award-winning film Sally, airing on National Geographic June 16 and streaming June 17 on Disney+. Sally Ride's early life and career Born in Los Angeles in 1951, Ride successfully turned a childhood interest in science, spurred in part by a chemistry set, into a storied STEM career. Though she almost pursued a career in tennis—she was a nationally-ranked player as an undergraduate at Swarthmore College and then Stanford University—the young Ride instead opted for a career in astrophysics. Ride was completing her doctorate at Stanford when she saw the newspaper ad that would change her life—and the history of space flight. NASA was recruiting for its 1978 class, and for the first time, women were invited to apply. Though women had already been to space—Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova had paved the way in 1963—NASA had long resisted the idea of women astronauts. In the early 1960s, 13 women participated in a privately funded program designed to test whether women could succeed in space. But though the group passed the same set of tests as NASA astronauts, the Woman in Space Program was ditched in 1962. (Here's why women may be best suited for spaceflight.) That year, during Congressional hearings on the feasibility of sending women to space, astronauts John Glenn and Scott Carpenter testified against the program, claiming women were not qualified because they were not military test pilots—a longstanding requirement for NASA astronauts—even though that profession, too, was closed to women. But by the time Ride applied to the agency in 1978, NASA had dropped that requirement. As Ride read the ad's list of applicant qualifications, she realized that, in her words, 'I'm one of those people.' Indeed, she was one of six women selected for the class of 35 out of an applicant pool of 8,000. The Challenger shuttle lifts off from the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on June 18, 1983. With this historic launch, Sally Ride became America's first female astronaut to go into space. This was Challenger's second mission and the seventh space shuttle launch. Photograph by Robert Alexander, Archive Photos/Getty Sally Ride and her fellow women astronauts kept their heads down and tried their best not to garner special attention. Five years later, after mastering various behind-the-scenes roles at mission control and helping develop the International Space Station's robotic arm, Ride was chosen as a crew member for mission STS-7, a June 1983 flight on the Challenger shuttle. (Read how Ride helped inspire this astronaut hopeful.) The media and NASA itself struggled to figure out what to make of the personable, straightforward scientist. As it prepared for the flight, NASA suggested she take 100 tampons for a week-long mission and even created a makeup kit for her to take to space. (She didn't.) Meanwhile, the media barraged her with frivolous questions. 'Everybody wanted to know what kind of makeup I was taking up—they didn't care about how well-prepared I was to operate the arm or deploy communication satellites,' Ride had told feminist leader and political activist Gloria Steinem in a 1983 interview. Despite the pressure, Ride's first flight—a six-day satellite deployment and retrieval mission—was a success, landing at Edwards Air Force Base on June 24, 1983. So was her second mission, an eight-day flight in 1984. And though Ride's third flight was canceled after the Challenger was lost, she continued to work for NASA. She retired from NASA in 1989, becoming a professor of physics at the University of California, San Diego, and director of the University of California Space Institute. She later created her own company, Sally Ride Science, designed to encourage girls and women to pursue STEM careers. Sally Ride stands near the monodisperse latex reactor experiment and displays the array of tools at her disposal on the mid deck of the Earth-orbiting Space Shuttle Challenger. Ride and four other astronauts aboard shared duties aboard the reusable spacecraft. Astronaut Sally Ride communicates with ground controllers from the mid deck of the Earth-orbiting Space Shuttle Challenger. Ride monitored the continuous flow electrophoresis system experiment during the mission. Ride broke barriers in life and in death. On July 23, 2012, she died of pancreatic cancer at just 61—and the obituary that she had prepared prior to her death included a line about her 27-year-long relationship with a woman, her business partner Tam O'Shaughnessy. Coming out during her life 'doesn't seem to have occurred to her and certainly would have jeopardized her chance to go to space if not killed it outright,' wrote Ann Friedman for The American Prospect, noting that as late as 1990, seven years after Ride first went to space, NASA had made moves to disqualify people from the space program based on their sexual orientation. Though that rule was never passed and the agency now has an office dedicated to its LGBTQ employees, there has never been an openly LGBTQ astronaut. In 2013, Ride was posthumously awarded Ride the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama. There have been other American women in space, however—more than 40 of them—and in 2019, American astronauts completed a historic all-woman spacewalk. 'Now people don't notice there are women going up on space shuttle flights,' Ride said in 2002. 'It's happening all the time.' Today, the very normalcy of women's participation in the space program is a testament to Ride's pioneering career—and, by 2024, NASA may even land the first woman on the moon as part of its upcoming Artemis mission. Sally begins airing on National Geographic June 16 and streams on Disney+ June 17. Check local listings. Sally Ride's iconic flight jacket. Ride wore this uniform on her historic first ride into space on June 18, 1983, with the STS-7 space shuttle mission. Photograph by Mackenzie Calle, Nat Geo Image Collection In 2019, Sally Ride's image was immortalized in a Barbie doll. Ride serves as a role model for generations of young women. Photograph by Mackenzie Calle, Nat Geo Image Collection
