ASTANA – Kazakh tennis player Alexander Bublik won the 2019 Hungarian Challenger Open, an Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Challenger Tour tournament, held Feb. 4-10 in Budapest.
Alexander Bublik. Photo credit: informburo.kz.
Bublik beat Italian Roberto Marcora in the finals 6-0, 6-3. During the 55-minute game, the 21-year-old served five breaks and seven aces, making just two mistakes. Marcora, 29, made three aces and the same number of faults, reported sports.kz.
The meeting was the first between the two. At the time of the game, Bublik was 172nd in the ATP ranking; Marcora, 283rd.
This title was Bublik’s fourth on the Challenger Tour, bringing him a career total 80 rating points. The first-place finish was his eighth tournament win, including the International Tennis Federation and ATP Challenger tours.
The tournament, held since 2016, was previously won in single draws by Canadian Vashek Pospisil (2018), Austrian Jürgen Melzer (2017) and Romanian Marius Kopil (2016). This year’s prize fund was 64,000 euros (US$72,294).
Bublik debuted in the Davis Cup last week for the Kazakh national team, winning both matches, and his team defeated Portugal to reach the final stage. The finals will be held in November in Madrid.
According to the recent ATP ranking, Kazakh tennis player Mikhail Kukushkin improved his position by two lines to 53rd place. After the Hungarian tournament, Bublik improved to 144th and Kazakh player Alexander Nedovesov from 190th to 188th.
Novak Djokovic (Serbia) leads the ATP ranking, followed by Rafael Nadal (Spain) and Alexander Zverev (Germany).
Players who succeed on the international men’s ATP Challenger Tour earn ranking points to become eligible for the main draw or qualifying draw entry at ATP World Tour tournaments.
