CHERBOURG, February 13, 2019

Alexander Bublik, champion of last week’s ATP Challenger tournament in Budapest, fell in his opening match at the €46,000 Challenger-Cherbourg-La Manche. The No. 10 seed from Kazakhstan lost to Zdenek Kolar from the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-3 in only 55 minutes on Wednesday afternoon. Bublik only won 38 per cent of the total points played.

Bublik’s performance raised some questions for the internet’s tennis community with some of them implying that the match was fixed. The 21-year-old Gatchina native, however, had his own explanation:

“Hey everyone! I had a very tough week on Davis Cup and the last week in Budapest. I went to Cherbourg very tired but I left everything I could on court .. my knee hurts. I hope to be ready for Bergamo next week,” Bublik posted on instagram. He later withdrew from his doubles match due to injury.

👀👀👀😂😂 pic.twitter.com/8MqpNGH59I

— Luis (@lu_tenis) 13. Februar 2019

Kolar will next take on compatriot Lukas Rosol, who also seemed to be surprised by Bublik’s match, commenting on instagram: “We are studying contrasts!”

Here you have it but i don’t know or you can read Czech xd pic.twitter.com/pVTFXFFmnI

— luukvangendt (@luukvangendt) 13. Februar 2019