Madrid Open star sits down and refuses to play as supervisor enters court | Tennis | Sport

Alexander Bublik sat on his bench mid-game and delayed play during his second-round outing at the Madrid Open on Friday. The Kazakh wasn’t happy with a contentious call on his serve and marched over to the umpire’s chair to plead his case before sitting down and holding up the match.

The supervisor eventually came to the court and Bublik continued ranting before he finally gave in and returned to the baseline to continue play. The world No. 75 was serving to stay in the second set against Alexei Popyrin when he confronted the officials, but he managed to survive and sealed a 6-4 7-6(4) victory.

Bublik is no stranger to controversy. Last month, he offered to fight Corentin Moutet after their Phoenix Challenger match. The Kazakh has had his fair share of arguments with umpires, and it was no different when he faced Popyrin in Madrid.

At 5-6 15-30 in the second set, with Bublik two points from losing it, the umpire announced that he had missed his first serve after a “technical error”.

Automatic line calls are in use at the Madrid Open, and there was a faint, delayed call of ‘out’ after Popyrin had already returned Bublik’s serve. It wasn’t clear if the call came from a nearby court or applied to Bublik’s shot and had been late.

“Fault. Technical error, second serve,” chair official Jimmy Pinoargote announced.

But Bublik wasn’t happy, claiming he should have been given a first serve. The world No. 75 chuntered away at the baseline before approaching the umpire’s chair.

He continued to argue that he deserved a first serve and eventually took a seat while some of the fans on Court 7 started to jeer.

ATP Tour supervisor and referee Cedric Mourier soon took to the court and was seen in discussions with both Bublik and the umpire.

After a few minutes, Bublik finally got up and started walking back to the court while in an animated discussion with the supervisor.

The 27-year-old found himself in more trouble when he finally resumed the game, as Popyrin had a set point on his serve. But survived and forced a tiebreak, where he pulled off the upset and took out the No. 25 seed.

It’s the first time Bublik has won back-to-back ATP Tour-level matches this year. The world No. 75 beat Alex Michelsen in the first round.

He is now through to the last 32 to face either Gael Monfils or defending champion Andrey Rublev.