Super Serious Sascha

Bublik has surprised everyone by being one of the most focused and serious players lately...

After two titles, a long vacation, and absolutely destroying Cilic in the first round, how would Bublik come out against someone like Schoolkate (no offense) in the second round? Well, he turned up in complete business mode and annihilated him as well. There was a moment or two going 0-30 with DFs, but he absolutely redeemed himself by saving it with like four unreturned serves/aces each time... Tommy started with a night-session opening round against the forehand and serve-less Elmer Moller (condolences to those who had night session tickets). After that, he had another night-session match against Borges, which was a highly entertaining match with many twists and turns. It was a match that lasted almost five hours, with both players cramping toward the end...

Paul has absolutely dominated this H2H with 5-1 W/L in his favor. However, Bublik is not the same player... we need to be cautious about how we process data from his past; he has lost many matches due to a lack of effort and seriousness. And Paul is definitely someone who would bother him then, with his good returning skills able to neutralize his serve and his mobility to chase down drop shots and prolong rallies. Well, I just described why this is a tough matchup for Bublik, even with the new version of Bublik, Paul has some good tools to counter him! However, Bublik is so much more than just a guy with a serve and a drop shot right now. I might be "glazing" him too much here, but I don't see many flaws in his game right now. I even put him up there in the top 6, after Shelton/Draper/Fritz. He is a lot more willing to dig in and rally from the baseline nowadays, and he is just so good from either wing, with enormous firepower to keep producing deep shots as well as the ability to take the net. He can be a bit streaky, but this is at least slightly negated by the fact that Paul also tends to have streaks in matches where he just goes off the rails and donates at least one break. Paul is one of the fittest guys on tour, but he is coming back from injury, and that is a major worry for me here. It's not all gloom and doom for Paul, though; he will have the advantage of having already played twice during the night session, which is a big advantage. Bublik has not, so we might see a slow start with a lot of errors in the first set! Bublik has not really been tested yet, either, while Paul might play freely after surviving his absolute battle against Borges. We have an interesting match ahead of us, let's check the odds...