Alexander Bublik becomes father by welcoming son Vasily

Thursday, 18 August 2022 at 09:00

Updated at Sunday, 26 November 2023 at 19:11

byBalasz Virag

Alexander Bublik has been absent from this week's Cincinnati Masters, and he shared the reason on his Instagram yesterday.

Ahead of the last major of the season, players are trying to collect some valuable ATP ranking points during the North American swing. For the Kazakhstani player, that mean the Canadian Open participation, but he lost to Jenson Brooksby already in his first match in Montreal.

After that, Bublik was supposed to move to Cincinnati as the rest of the Tour to compete at the 2022 Cincinnati Masters. However, he withdrew from the ATP 1000 tournament without giving a specific reason, but on August 16th, 2022, he shared an Instagram story showing a card.

On the card was a name - Vasiliy with the accompanying 'Bienvenue.' That means, that the most likely reason for his Cincinnati Masters absence was impending fatherhood as his wife gave birth to their first child - a boy named Vasily.

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Bublik played only one event in the last four weeks, and now it's unclear when he will return to action but it's highly unlikely that he will skip the US Open starting in 12 days on August 29th.

For the 33-year-old it's another chapter in his life as he will now play as a father, and will likely turn his focus more towards parenthood rather than competition.

Bublik never shied away from admitting that he plays tennis to earn a living, as he doesn't have any particular feelings about the sport, so it should probably be quite easy for him to prioritize family.

He joins the growing list of fathers on the ATP Tour, and he will certainly want to leave a legacy behind, something that motivates many athletes, and Bublik will likely be the same, wanting to show his son Vasily one day how successful tennis players he used to be.