Former Montpellier Open champion Alexander Bublik remained calm under pressure and managed to beat Denis Shapovalov in three hard-fought sets.
It was a really close and tense match between the two, and the Kazakhstani player remained under pressure when it mattered. By doing that, he was able to use Denis Shapovalov's drop in level to overturn and win the match.
Montpellier is pretty familiar to Bublik, who has won a trophy at the ATP 250 event in the city in the past, but he didn't start well. The start was all Shapovalov as the Canadian continued his great form from the previous match.
He demolished Bublik in the opening set 6-1, mostly behind really solid play from the baseline. He had six aces and didn't drop a single point behind his first serve in that opening set.
The second set was an interesting one as fans saw chances on both sides, but neither player was able to find a breakthrough. The set ended up in a tiebreak that opened well for Bublik as he took a 3-0 lead.
Shapovalov would battle back and make it 6-6, after which a lot more points were played. The tiebreak, in fact, featured 26 points as Bublik saved three match points to win it 14-12.
After surviving that, Bublik took an early 3-0 lead in the second set as Shapovalov was not able to respond, and even took a medical time out to address a knee issue, because of which he was away from the sport for six months.
Still, it was a pretty big missed chance for the Canadian. He needs matches and more wins to regain his confidence, and this one will sting for a while because he was only one point away from winning three times.
In the end, Bublik cruised to an easy finish. The final score was 1-6 7-6(12) 6-3 for the Kazakhstani player who moved on to the quarterfinals. On the other hand, Shapovalov can be content with what he showed despite losing.
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