Bublik Smashes His Racket, Cuts His Hand on a Cooler, Then Beats Nakashima in Shanghai

Alexander Bublik lost a set he was one point from winning, wrecked his racket, kicked his chair, punched a courtside cooler hard enough to cut his own hand, and then won the match anyway. The Kazakh’s third-round escape against Brandon Nakashima in Shanghai on Sunday ran the full sequence in about two hours: two blown set points, a medical timeout for an injury he gave himself, and a comeback built on a serve Nakashima could not touch.

What exactly did Bublik do at the change of ends?

He worked through the furniture in order. UbiTennis reports that as soon as the first set ended, Bublik repeatedly smashed his racket on the floor, kicked the bottom of his seat, then smashed his fist onto the top of the fridge next to him, breaking its plastic layer, which cut his hand. TennisUpToDate reports the damaged racket was left on the court while he checked the hand and called a medical timeout to have it assessed. Shanghai has now seen the full range of racket incidents in a week, from Terence Atmane’s throw toward the crowd in qualifying to this one, where the only person injured was the player himself.

Why did two points set all of this off?

Because of how the set was lost. The first 12 games brought 12 holds of serve, and Bublik reached 6-4 in the tiebreak with two set points, TennisUpToDate reports. He converted neither. Nakashima saved both, missed a set point of his own, then took the tiebreak 9-7, winning five of the last six points. A set that had been a serving exhibition was decided by the two points Bublik will remember, and his reaction started before he reached his chair. It is the same frustration pattern that has followed him through the season, in a year that began with his first run into the world top 10 conversation and has since slid back toward the twenties.

How did he win the match with a cut hand?

By serving the problem away. UbiTennis reports Bublik did not face a break point in either of the last two sets and won 83 percent of his first-serve points, levelling the match 6-3 and then taking the deciding tiebreak 7-5 at his second opportunity. The medical timeout, called for an injury caused by his own fist, became the reset the set break was supposed to be. Nakashima, who had arrived in career-best form after a Canadian Open final and a Cincinnati semi-final, TennisUpToDate reports, never got a look at the Bublik serve again.

Should Bublik have been defaulted for the outburst?

That is the argument now running, and Shanghai keeps supplying the test cases. Fans quoted by Sportskeeda asked why a sequence that damaged court property drew no stronger sanction, and compared it with Medvedev’s disqualification in Beijing, where a struck ball hit a spectator. The working line in the rulebook is danger to others: Atmane’s racket flew toward a crowd and still brought only a code violation and a point penalty, which drew its own criticism of the umpire. Bublik’s racket stayed at his own bench and the damage was to himself, which is likely why play simply continued, but no ATP ruling or fine had been reported by Monday.

What does the win set up next?

A fourth-round meeting with the top seed, and it is not the draw Zverev would have picked. UbiTennis reports Bublik leads Alexander Zverev 3-1 in their head-to-head, even if the last meeting was in 2023, and Zverev, fresh from a three-set scare against Quentin Halys and a week of practice-court complaints in Shanghai, said he expects a difficult match and a tough battle. That arithmetic has since been settled without Zverev lifting a racket: Bergs beat Alcaraz on Monday and handed Zverev the year-end No. 1. Bublik, hand permitting, is now simply the obstacle standing in front of the new year-end No. 1’s Shanghai run.

What happens next for Bublik in Shanghai?

The Zverev match, and possibly a letter from the tour. If the cut needs more than the tape it got on Sunday, his grip on the racket he did not smash becomes the story of the fourth round. If it does not, Shanghai gets the tournament’s most volatile player against its top seed, with a 3-1 head-to-head lead and nothing about his Sunday behaviour suggesting he plans to make it a quiet one.

How did Bublik’s Shanghai run end? (Update, October 13)

In the fourth round, two days later, against the top seed. Bublik took Alexander Zverev to a final-set tiebreak before losing 7-6(6), 4-6, 7-6(1), saving his best tennis for the first set, where he held four set points and led the tiebreak 6-3. Zverev, playing through a recurring ankle problem in his first match as the confirmed year-end No. 1, broke back immediately after losing serve at the start of the third set and took the deciding tiebreak 7-1. Bublik was broken only once all match. No ATP fine or ruling on Sunday’s cooler outburst had been reported by Tuesday.