Alexander Bublik gets candid, says he hates tennis

In a new interview that sent ripples through the ranks of the tennis Twitterati, Alexander Bublik was quoted as saying candidly that he doesn't even like tennis, in fact actively hates it, and plays the sport merely for the money.

The tatted-up, 22-year-old Kazak's comments arrived in a French-language story from *Tennis Actu*.

In related news, the rest of his colleagues—or fellow independent contractors—on the professional tours read the headline and shrugged.

Bublik's eight-spot rise in the ATP Tour rankings landed him at No. 47 this week, and he turned in a straight-sets defeat of No. 30 Hubert Hurkacz to set up a match against No. 2 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas, which he lost 7-6 (1), 6-4.

Tsitsipas also beat Bublik in the semifinals of Marseille last week. There, Bublik turned in three-set victories over No. 6 seed Benoit Paire and No. 4 Denis Shapovalov before acquiescing to his Greek foe.

And that's tennis in a nutshell—a new week breeds a new opportunity to notch a win over a similarly aged rival.