ROLAND GARROS

May 31, 2025

Alexander Bublik

Press Conference

A. BUBLIK/H. Rocha

7-5, 6-1, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Questions in English.

Q. Just looking at your numbers on clay, the numbers of matches you've won this year are way up. I know you mentioned that last time I saw you too. What do you think is contributing to this? How much is schedule change, game change, attitude change?

ALEXANDER BUBLIK: I dropped out of the top 50 for the first time probably in my life. Since six years was there, and then I had a drop. I was on a losing streak, and then I have basically an option to take it a bit seriously in a way. I went to lower-ranked, lower tournaments. I played a few challengers. I played actually two challengers in between the Masters, and I have no time to joke around there.

I came there to win, and I did a final and a win in Turin. Then I have to take matches more seriously, and I did. It's as simple as that. I just took matches way more seriously, because I can't see myself out top 100 and not being able to play the tournaments I like to play, because I still have courage to play tennis.

That's why. I guess there was just a shift in the mentality because I had no options whatsoever. Then, yeah, just stick in, and I was lucky enough to win a lot of matches.

Q. Do you think you needed that real urgency from the number next to your name changing in order to switch into this gear? You couldn't have made that mental change when you were still in the top 50?

ALEXANDER BUBLIK: I don't know. I mean, if you ask me now what I would suggest to myself back in Wimbledon 2024, I would suggest to take some weeks off, you know, because I got to the 17 in the world, which was a big thing for me. 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. Like right now everybody is like robots, and they're just crazy, crazy performance guys.

Then I did it. Unfortunately, to be honest, unfortunately 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.

So I'm 17. I was looking at, you know, like points, a race thing. So I was like, Okay, if I do this, this, and that, which I'm capable of, if I practice 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?

Then it was the other way around. I am 80 in the world. I'm, like, Okay, my coach suggests a trip to Vegas in between Indian Wells and Phoenix. He's like, Man, if you play like this, we're just going to be out of tennis, of the conversation by Wimbledon because that's where my points are -- I mean, after Wimbledon I made, like, 50 points.

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.

Q. Was it a training trip in Vegas or a Vegas trip in Vegas?

ALEXANDER BUBLIK: No, Vegas, Vegas, like a hangover thing Vegas, yeah. So it was a good three days in Vegas. I arrived three hours before the match in Phoenix, and I had just leave it all out. I said, Okay, I'm useless now, I can't win a match, so let it be, let's see how it goes.

Q. It's Jack Draper in the next round. What have you made of the kind of developments in his game over the last few years, and what will you need to do well to beat him on Monday?

ALEXANDER BUBLIK: Jack for me is insane. I saw him first day here. I'm like, Are you getting ready for UFC?

I mean, last year the guy is 40 in the world. 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, and Jack is a great sportsman, great person. I know him since -- I mean, I played him in the quallies of Queen's in 2018 or something. He was a little kid. Then when he beat me in Queen's, and he told me -- I didn't remember that. He told me, I finally got you. I said, Let's speak when you are in top 50, because he was like 300 in the world striking everything, and now he's top 10. So now I have to have some courage to play, and we'll see how it goes.

He's amazing. He's, like, No. 2 in the race or something, 3? What is that? I don't understand. That's too good.

Q. With the win over Alex in the earlier round, will that give you some confidence that you've beaten already one top-10 player here?

ALEXANDER BUBLIK: As I said, I had the point when I was 17, and I was in the race in the top 20. I was, like, Okay, so if I do this and that, I'll be there. You know, I'll try to get to Nitto, or I try to get to top 10, but it's not working like this.

For me I just have to stay on my path, enjoy what I do. If I win, I win. If I lose, I lose. I don't want to have any expectation even within myself. I just have to be there, hit the forehands, hit the backhands. We'll see how it goes.

Q. Do you feel that you are different from most players, not only the way you play, but the way how you approach life, the way you talk even now? I mean, you know all the other players, so maybe you have good friends, bad friends. I don't know. Do you feel that in a way you're different and that sometimes to be different is more complicate because you have to follow a different path?

ALEXANDER BUBLIK: You know, they make me feel different. There was always a question within my team and, you know, within the families, like, are we different, or they are? That's how I approach it because I think in my perspective I'm very normal.

I'm the guy you can see me having a nice time down the street in Paris in the evening before the match. Not to go crazy, but I'm social. I can skip the practice if I don't feel, and I think it's pretty normal.

In my opinion I'm super normal, and they make me feel different. Now, you know, with being in the conversation with the top guys, you know, I have a couple of top-10 wins and won a couple of tournaments, so I'm familiar with those guys. I'm friends with most of the top-10 guys. They make me feel different.

I'm, like, Isn't that normal. If you want to sleep, you just sleep. I mean, we are top athletes. Someone made like 100 million, 25 titles, and he still wants to go for more. For me, I mean, that's not normal in my opinion, but they make me feel like this.

Nowadays sport make me feel like this, that I'm different, which I don't believe so because I think I'm just normal guy that just was playing tennis and made it.

Then I have to get into the conversation and the consequences of me not maybe giving out so much, not giving enough sacrifice. I don't know. Do I want that? I'm not sure, but I think I'm pretty normal, but they make me feel like this, to be honest.

That is funny. I have my own perspective on what I want to achieve in this sport, what I want to prove me, myself, you know, within me, what I'm capable of, having reached my potential or not.

But in the end, I think I'm very, very normal. I'm a very normal guy outside of the court, which people laugh about. When I'm speaking to the top guys, like, How did you do that? What do you mean? That's normal. You wake up. You do this. You don't feel like practicing. You go still to practice, but maybe you don't give 100% because you're tired. I don't know.

So, yeah, it's a part of me already, and I accepted that, and I try to work my way in between the amazing athletes, top-performing guys, and try to make my living of it.

Q. So you think you are normal outside of the court. What about in the court? Because when you play everyone likes you. I mean, you play clearly different because your play in Rome, everybody supporting you, everybody when you play in other place, they want you.

ALEXANDER BUBLIK: That's a very good question because I do live my life by the saying that I avoid, you know, every fight. 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.

I'm not going to be able to play five and a half hours against Jack tomorrow or when I play after tomorrow, so I have to work my way through the other parts. I'm not capable physically of running five hours. I'm going to probably just die there, literally. I'm not going to be able. I'm not able to withstand the 45 degrees Australian sun. I'm not even going to do that. I'm worrying about my health over tennis.

Then on court, obviously, I also find the ways to win matches, to find a way how can I win those guys with what I have, and I have a lot, like, in terms of an arsenal of shots, shot selections. Sometimes I have to go for crazy, as they may seem, shots, but this is the only option I have. Otherwise, what happened with me when I was 17 is that I tried to play with them.

You know, when I spoke to Sascha or to Andrey, they say, Oh, you have to hit, like, 15 backhands. I hit three, guys. What's 15? I'm not able to do that.

I was still a top-20 player, and I'm back to the top 50 now because I'm forced, if I want to be a player, if I want to be in the conversation with the guys, if I want to be in the second weeks of a slam, win the big tournaments, be a contender for every tournament I go, I want to be dangerous, I have to work different way, with different approach, with a different mindset because if I just go a kick serve to the backhand, I'm going to receive 100% return.

What am I supposed to do? I'm not going to be able to stay there and rally for hours and hours, so I have to be different. I'm just more forced to be that than I actually want to be that.

Q. You used the word "robots" earlier about describing some of the mindsets on tour. I'm wondering, when you went down to the challenger level, did you see fewer robots down there, or is it more people being normal there from your observation? Then, also, on that front on the challengers, I'm curious what happened with Moutet in Arizona?

ALEXANDER BUBLIK: Well, I went to the challengers only in between the Masters, so they were quite packed as well. I don't think I faced -- I faced only two guys outside of top 100.

In that regard, obviously the level there is just lower, simply lower. Me being in the top 50 for six, seven years in a row, being top 30 for maybe two or three years in a row, I still have -- I know how to play tennis.

It was not as tough, obviously, like to play, I don't know, Alex. But even there, they're not, like, normal, if you say like a normal guy that would enjoy a pint of a beer in the evening. They still try to get the best from themselves.

Even there, even when you see the guys that were never going to make it, I can tell them that they're never going to make it. It's impossible because they don't have a skill set, but they still 9 o'clock in the morning they're in the gym. My physio is super professional. He tells me, You know, this guy came in 8:00 in the morning. I say, Why? What do you mean? Why? Oh, because he wants to be the best, the best version of himself.

This craziness that social media in a way put in us that we have to be the best version of ourselves. No, we just have to be ourselves. It's very simple in my opinion.

Q. On Moutet, what happened in that match?

ALEXANDER BUBLIK: I mean, nothing serious. We just have a little beef. I mean, didn't go through. No one got hurt, so I guess it's good. Nothing to talk about.