Alexander Bublik was widely known as a player who did not enjoy playing tennis but he seemingly came around to admitting that he actually does in his most recent interview.
Bublik, much like Kyrgios, admitted to not really loving tennis that much but obviously it was not something that was set in stone. As any person, tennis players do go through different stages of their careers and even Kyrgios was able to find joy in tennis as he became mature.
The Russian-born player had quite a similar journey as he admitted in a recent exclusive interview with ubitennis.com. He explained that he enjoys playing tennis now compared to many years ago when he famously said that:
"The media has been doing it wrong many times. With my speeches, sometimes they take my words out (of context) and use them. It was not a joke that I said I play tennis for money because at that specific moment I was not enjoying what I was doing.
But as time went by and it has been three years since that interview, things have changed a lot and I do enjoy playing tennis now because I realized that this is what I wanted to do when I was a kid. When I was growing up I was standing in front of the mirror wearing Rafael Nadal or Roger Federer clothes dreaming of playing in (tennis) arenas."
While his approach is somewhat unique he is provign that he belongs:
"When this thing (media reports on Bublik’s comment) about playing for money got too big, I was like this is not entirely true because I was dreaming of standing here in front of thousands of people. I definitely enjoy and love playing tennis.
Being a professional, there are still people within the circuit who are like do you have a coach? Do you have a fitness trainer? And they are surprised. It happens to me but slowly I can become as professional as some of the greats of the game."