A Question of Motivation

Will we see effort from Bublik this time?

Well, it was signs of the old Bublik against Mannarino in Beijing. To be fair, he had just come from a title... but he had not spent a lot of time on court. He was scheduled to play doubles with Musetti, but pulled out of that as well, due to a right foot injury. Make of that what you will, keep in mind that Musetti was also coming from a deep run in Chengdu. I will focus almost exclusively on Bublik's motivation here instead of the matchup... cause that's what the result in this match will largely depend on. So, yes, there will be a lot of speculation. OK, let's start with the fact that Bublik is forced to play this event; otherwise, he will get fined. And by the looks of it, he likes money a lot. Cause he has been tanking first-round matches at events instead of withdrawing for a long time now (although it has been better lately). We know that heat and humidity are something he strongly dislikes, and he actively avoids events due to this (North American hardcourt swing). And yes, the conditions here are brutal. We do know that he can run through easier opponents and finish matches in 1 hour, which can help a bit. Something else that is interesting is his upcoming schedule... Almaty on 13 October in Kazakhstan, and then indoor hardcourt in Europe. His opponent, Vacherot, has been battling hard to make it here... coming from a set down twice in qualifiers before beating a very "rusty" Djere in the main draw. I do like the fact that he has a good serve and that he can hold his own decently from the baseline. If he can hold onto his own serve, it might be enough for Bublik to become frustrated in the heat and hit himself out of the match which wild errors and double-faults...