Don’t take it out on the racket!
Kazakhstan tennis star Alexander Bublik, 25, lost his cool and destroyed three of his rackets when he suffered an upset loss to unranked opponent Grégoire Barrère Thursday at Open Sud de France.
Bublik fell to his opponent Barrère 6-4, 6-7 (12), 7-6 (3) in a match that saw him double fault 14 times, failing to defend his French tournament title.
As both players change ends when Barrère takes a 6-0 lead in the third set of the match — that’s when footage shows Bublik obliterating his racket to pieces.
Bublik, who was ranked No. 6 in the tournament and 50th in the world, walks back to his bench and does his best Nick Kyrgios impression, smashing two more broken rackets — now making it three — in front of the raucous crowd.
The 25-year-old fell to 0-6 on the year.
“Game should be over when this happens. No need for it at all,” one Twitter user said.
“Appalling,” another user said. “Make him play with that racquet.”
Australian tennis player Kyrgios was hit with a major fine of $14,000 when he wrecked two of his rackets after a quarter-final loss to Karen Khachanov at the US Open last September.
Bublik is no stranger to losing his cool when it doesn’t go his way on the court.
After losing to Maxime Cressy for the ATP Hall of Fame Open title in July, Bublik left the audience scratching their heads after a cringeworthy runner-up speech.
“There is not much to say. To be honest with you I’m very upset with the outcome, but I would like to congratulate Max for his first title,” the Kazakhstan star says.
“I mean, if you have that great luck put all your money on red please, you’re gonna win big time,” Bublik adds.
Bublik, once ranked as high as 30th in the world after winning his 1st ATP Tour title in 5th final in 2019, has a career record of 103-103.