The Defense of Jannika Sinner at World No. 1 at Halle Open suddenly ended on Thursday when he suffered a shock of 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 defeats Alexander Bublik in round 16. Kazakhstan, who placed in the 45th place in the world.
Sinner, who was trying to become the first player since Roger Federer won the following titles in Halle, looked at the check early and smashed the bubble twice to race 3-0 lead and sealed the opening orchard with authority. The match, however, quickly moved when Bublik responded with his trademark Flair and fired 36 winners, of which 15 aces to disrupt the rhythm of the usually folded Italian.
This called Sinner’s first defeat for players outside the TOP 20 by his loss to Dusan Lajovice in Cincinnati last year. It is irony that Bublik also defeated Sinner on his way to victory in Halle in 2023, now he made two wins in so many performances against Italian on this grass judge.
“I don’t know. I still served. I tried to get back what I could,” Bublik said after the victory. “He’s an incredible player. I didn’t think I could beat him.”
Bublik saved three points of breaks at the beginning of the second set and broke to 4-2 before equalizing the match. In the referees, a major break in the seventh game gave him a lead 4-3, which consolidated with three other aces to close the competition in less than two hours.
The 26-year-old will now face the Czech Seventh Semen Tomas Machac, who sailed around Fabian Marozsan 6-2, 6-3.
Elsewhere in Halle, the German second seed Alexander Zverev fought back from the orchard to beat Lorenzo Sonego 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (2) and maintain his perfect record against Italian. Zverev, a double finalist in Halle, who is still looking for his first crown of grass court, will meet another with Flavio Cobolli, who passed around Denis Shapoval in a tense three hundredter, 7-6 (2), 4-6, 7-6 (5).
Meanwhile, the fourth seed of Andrey Rublev became the latest high-ranking victims and lost to Argentina Tomáš Etcheverry 6-3, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (6) in an engaging three-hour competition. Etcheverry saved two points of matches in the final Tiebreak to advance and will face Russian Karen Khachanov, who overcame Felix Aliassime 6-3, 1-6, 6-3.
Published:
Saurabh Kumar
Published on:
June 20, 2025
