At the end of the night, Bublik eliminates Paul and joins Sinner in the US Open round of 16
On Arthur Ashe Stadium, the schedule concluded with the highly anticipated match between Alexander Bublik and Tommy Paul. The match lived up to all expectations and provided suspense late into the night.
Confident in recent months, the Kazakh, who has won three tournaments this year (Halle, Gstaad, and Kitzbühel) and reached his first Grand Slam quarterfinal at Roland Garros, represented a trap match for Paul, ranked 14th in the ATP.
After a match with many twists and turns, Bublik, ranked 24th in the world and steadily approaching his career-high ranking (17th), had the final say after a fifth set that he controlled from start to finish (7-6, 6-7, 6-3, 6-7, 6-1 in 3 hours and 38 minutes).
Still not broken a single time since the start of the tournament, Bublik sets up a clash against Jannik Sinner for a spot in the quarterfinals. The Kazakh had already delivered a high-level performance in their last encounter in Halle during the grass-court tour in recent weeks.
"It will definitely be very tough. I haven't managed to beat him yet in this best-of-five format. I'll try to seize my opportunities. Now it's time to rest, but I hope I don't play at 11 p.m. this time," Bublik said on the court after his victory.
On the other hand, American men's tennis is not faring well in this tournament. After the early defeats of Frances Tiafoe and Ben Shelton, it's Tommy Paul's turn to fail to qualify for the second week.
As the round of 16 begins this Sunday, only one player representing the United States remains in the men's draw, and that is Taylor Fritz. The defending finalist of this US Open will face Tomas Machac in the coming hours.
