Jannik Sinner kicked off his grass-court season in style, beating Alexander Bublik in two sets at the 2023 Libema Open.
Players who like to get a few warm-up events behind their belt before the grass-court Grand Slam starts in July, met at the ATP 250 tournament in 's-Hertogenbosch, the 2023 Libema Open, which has a long tradition.
Novak Djokovic is one of the players that usually doesn't play many warm-up tournaments, but it doesn't matter as the Serb almost always managed to win the Wimbledon when he skips the lead-up events.
But Jannik Sinner and Alexander Bublik don't have as much experience as the 23-time Grand Slam champion, and that's why they have elected to compete in 's-Hertogenbosch. For both it was, naturally, the first grass-court tournament of the season, but while the Kazakh had the first-round win behind his belt, it was first match for the Italian.
The second seed enjoyed a bye in the first round, so he could enter the second-round meeting fresh. Sinner was coming to the tournament after a painful Roland Garros exit, and he wanted to follow up on last year's successful grass-court season with another run.
But Bublik is one of the best grass-court players in the world, especially because of his powerful play and serves. He showed that early on in the match, but even his heroics on serve weren't enough to stop the Italian from using his seventh break point in the first set to lead for the first time at 4-3.
The Kazakh had his only break point of the match in the tenth game of the first set, but after he couldn't use it, Sinner won the opening set 6-4 and he carried the momentum also to the second set.
Breaking two of his opponent's first three service games in the second set, Sinner established a big enough lead to dominate the match and after an hour and 25 minutes, beat Bublik 6-4, 6-2 to secure the quarterfinal spot in 's-Hertogenbosch. After beating the seventh-seeded Ugo Humbert, Emil Ruusuvuori already awaits the Italian.
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