Alexander Bublik He is a unique and peculiar character in the world of tennis. Because he usually stars in curious situations during games, from incredible plays and hits that surprise everyone to unprecedented interactions with the public and attacks of fury when things don’t go well. But also because he has no problems saying what he thinks and many times his statements generate controversy, as happened before his participation in the ATP 250 Adelaidewhen in an interview with a Russian media he was very harsh with two living tennis legends.
The Kazakh, 33rd in the ranking, did not mince his words when talking about the retirements of Rafael Nadal y Andy Murraywho hung up their rackets last season at 38 and 37 years old, respectively. Former world number 1, multiple Grand Slam champions and gold medalists of the Olympicsthe Spanish and the Scottish left their mark in the history books of the “white sport”. And although Bublik acknowledged how great they became, he said that the way they closed their careers was “a circus.”
“You want to leave at your best moment. It is clear that I am not Nadal, my legacy will be much smaller, if you can call it that. But what has happened with Andy y Rafa It’s a circus. “I can’t call it anything else,” he commented in a note with the sports network. Match TVwhich is based in Russia, his country of birth.
“They have achieved everything. Even the other players were looking at them with open mouths in the locker room, and then you see one of them bald and old. It is clear that he is no longer the same and that he will never be the same again. In my opinion, “It’s even more of a disgrace than a circus. I guess that’s the right way to say it,” he continued alluding to Nadal.
The Mallorcan, winner of 22 Majors, including 14 Roland Garros (record for a tennis player in the same “big”), and Olympic champion in singles in Beijing 2008 and in doubles in Río 2016he held on as long as he could to his career, until his battered body – his left foot and his knees, above all – told him enough, after more than two decades at the highest level. And he played his last game in November, within the framework of the Final 8 of the Davis Cup in Malaga.
Murray, two-time champion in Wimbledon and once in the US Open and gold in London 2012 and Rio 2016, he said goodbye at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, after a hip replacement operation and several seasons struggling with injuries and physical discomfort that limited him too much on the court. But he will return to the circuit next week as one of the coaches of Novak Djokovic. The new company, which will debut in Australian Openwas celebrated by almost the entire tennis world. Not for Bublik.
“Murray has joined Djokovic’s team. They are attempts to cling to what is no longer there, to some echoes of the past. I think it is a problem. I hope it is not like that for me, but I can’t say for sure. Maybe at 36 years to go to the Challenger in Bangkok, but I still hope to leave with a calm soul,” said the Kazakh.
And as if the criticism of these two legends were not enough to stir the waters, Bublik revealed that last year he had two “absent” in anti-doping controls for different reasons.
“Once I didn’t change my home address in Monaco to St. Petersburg, and the agents went to Monaco. You can miss a doping test three times in a year and that’s how they gave me the first one,” he said.
“I took it calmly: I said I made a mistake. But then it happened that on April 20 I registered for the Geneva tournament, which began on May 25. I received a notification that a second control had been failed because I couldn’t I had notified them of my participation in the Geneva tournament. In the application you have to indicate where you are going to play and I was not sure if I was going to play in Geneva, although I had requested it. They equated it to an absence and a violation of the rules. anti-doping”, he continued.
And he closed: “If they had given me another one, they would have disqualified me. During the rest of the year I was in constant panic because two absences are too many. One more and I would end up with three years of disqualification, which would have been the end of my career.”