Alexander Bublik is a show pony and recently produced another highlight reel moment rising from his on-court outburst.
Bublik was born in Russia and represented his country until 2016 when he switched allegiance to Kazakhstan. This was mainly because of the support accorded to him by the Kazakhstani Tennis Federation and several other Russian-born players who chose to make the permanent nationality switch.
Bublik usually likes to play on fast courts, mostly on grass. He plays a risky game, so he tends to keep his points as short as possible and doesn't engage in rallies.
However, he's also been a polarizing presence on the court, causing quite a bit of controversy in the past weeks, from cursing out three-time Grand Slam champion Andy Murray in Stuttgart to openly trolling an umpire after he gave him a code violation.
Recently, he competed at the ATP 250 in Eastbourne and sparked a funny moment. Bublik threw his racket onto the grass during his quarterfinal match against Taylor Fritz.
He received a code violation for it, which is pretty standard among tennis players after losing a point. The umpire, however, was not lenient and pointed out that he was damaging the court. He took inspiration from Kyrgios, saying that it "slipped" and that he was not damaging court.
To prove his point, Bublik intentionally dropped the racket in one game, telling the umpire it was not damaging the court. The commentators could not hold their chuckles. Tennis TV shared the footage on Instagram.
Bublik went on to lose the match in straight sets. This was his best run on the grass-court season this year after losing in the round of 16 in Stuttgart and Queen's.
He will compete at Wimbledon later this month because he is not playing under the Russian flag, as Russian players are banned from the upcoming major.