Monte-Carlo 2024: Boris Becker and Alexander Bublik Bash the ATP Tour Over Unfair Treatment of Jannik Sinner

Stefanos Tsitsipas’ semifinal match against Jannik Sinner has drawn some controversy. Alexander Bublik recently expressed his dislike of the incident on social media, with the former World No. 1, Boris Becker also joining the fray. He expressed his disapproval through an Instagram story with a notable caption.

During the semifinal match, a disputed call from the chair umpire during the second set raised eyebrows in the tennis world. An online video posted by the official Instagram account of “Tennis TV” pointed out this major mistake. Alexander Bublik wrote in the comments, “Unacceptable.” Apart from him, Boris Becker also took to his Instagram story and posted the video with the caption “The key 🗝️ of the match…” 

Many notable figures from the tennis community are voicing their support for Sinner. Brad Gilbert also showed his support for Sinner through his X post. He called for the introduction of electronic live calling technology in the clay court to avoid such mistakes.

The whole controversy began on Saturday. The pair split the first two sets, with Jannik Sinner winning the second 6-3 and Tsitsipas winning the first 6-4. In the decisive set, the new World No. 2 then won 3-1 and grabbed an early break. Tsitsipas was down two breaks on his next serve after missing his first one and finding himself in a breakpoint situation. In the replay that followed, Hawk-Eye demonstrated that his second serve was also out. But the line umpire chose not to call it.

Sinner would have been ahead 4-1 had the call gone through. Rather, at 3–4, Tsitsipas leveled the match by breaking the Italian’s serve after saving his own. The Greek then broke Jannik Sinner’s serve once more to seal the 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 victory. Alexander Bublik referred to this incident and shared his disapproval of the matter.

Bublik has always voiced his admiration for Sinner. Even when a 15-year-old Sinner played with Bublik, he could not help but admire his outstanding performance on the court.

“He’s really, really a great player,” said Alexander Bublik when he played against Sinner

A 24-year-old Alexander Bublik reached his first Masters 1000 quarterfinals at the Miami Open in 2021 before rising to a career-high ranking of No. 34. There, he faced the teenage Italian Jannik Sinner. Despite leading two breaks in both sets, Bublik was outplayed and lost 7-6 (5), 6-4, handing the match up to the prodigy. “You’re not human,” said Alexander Bublik after the match. “You’re 15 years old, and you play like this? Good job!” he further added.

He also appreciated Sinner’s performance and said, “I called him a robot a couple of times during the match, but I do it in a very sincere way because he’s really, really a great player.”

Voices like Alexander Bublik’s serve as a way to bring about this constructive change in the cutthroat world of tennis!