"I said okay, lets go to Vegas": Alexander Bublik brutally honest after reaching the French Open last 16

Kazakhstans Alexander Bublik has spoken out after defeating Henrique Rocha in straight sets to reach the French Open last 16 during Saturday's action at Roland Garros. In a dominant display, Bublik won 7-5, 6-1, 6-2 to defeat Rocha, setting up his next match against Jack Draper in the last 16, taking place on Monday the 2nd June at 2PM BST.

After battling back from Two sets down in his last 64 match against Alex De Minaur on Thursday the 29th of May to win 3-2. There was no signs of fatigue in the fixture against his Portuguese counterpart as the world number 62 ranked player dispatched his opponent with relative ease in the last 32 match. With 3 victories so far, Bublik has set up an enticing last 16 clash with Jack Draper of Great Britain as both players look to reach the French Open quarter final.

Speaking to the media after his triumph in the round of 32, Bublik revealed a factor which has helped him overcome total burn-out after dropping down the rankings in recent times.

"I got to the point, like, okay, why am I sacrificing so much? For what? Then it was the other way around. I am 80th in the world".

"My coach suggests a trip to Vegas in between Indian Wells and Phoenix. He's like, man if you play like this, we're just going to be out of Tennis, out of the conversation by Wimbledon because that's where my points are".

"I said okay, let's go to Vegas, we enjoy, we change the racquet, we did many things.".

Although the trip to Vegas was beneficial for avoiding total burnout, Alexander Bublik was very frank in his response when asked if this solely was the reason for his turnaround in form.

"No, Vegas, like a hangover thing, yeah. So, it was a good three days in Vegas".

Next up for Bublik in the Fourth round is Great Britains Jack Draper. speaking ahead of their fixture, the world number 62 was pushing serious praise for Draper.

"Jack for me is insane. I saw him the first day here, I'm like, are you getting ready for the UFC?".

"I mean, last year the guy is top 40 in the world, this year he is top 4, top 5 in the world, thats a crazy achievement".

"Jack is a great sportsman, great person, I know him since, I mean, I played him in the quallies of Queen's in 2018 or something".

"He was a little kid then when he beat me in Queen's and he told me 'I finally got you'. I said 'Let's speak when you are in the top top 50', because he was like 300 in the world striking everything and now he's top 10".

The Kazakhstan born Tennis player has stated he feels he has a different approach to everyone else when it comes to his professionalism, but that maybe it is a normal way of doing things. I'm the guy you can see me having a nice time down the street in Paris in the evening before the match. Not to go crazy but I'm social".

"I can skip practice if I don't feel and I think it's pretty normal. In my opinion I'm super normal, and they make me feel different".

"I'm friends with most of the top-10 guys, they make me feel different".

"But in the end, I think I'm very, very normal, I'm a very normal guy outside of the court, which people laugh about".

"When I'm speaking to the top guys, like how did you do that? What do you mean? That's normal, you wake up. You do this".

Despite all the talk of 'normal', Bublik's style of Tennis is far from that and his match against the in-form Draper will be sure to produce fireworks at Roland Garros.