Tennis is a brutal sport, as sometimes players lay it all on the line but still do not get their desired results. Some, unfortunately, resort to subtle, underhanded tactics to break their opponent’s rhythm. Tennis star Alexander Bublik spoke up on the issue recently.
Bublik was recently seen at the Ultimate Tennis Showdown Grand Finals in London. While the world no. 32 failed to make it to the finals, Bublik still put his best foot forward. 2023 was a decent year for the player from Kazakhstan. He won a couple of tiles along the way and even reached the fourth round at Wimbledon.
In a recent interview, Alexander spoke candidly on a variety of subjects. However, he shed light on an issue that is starting to permeate professional tennis. Bublik feels that there are many players who abuse the medical timeout rule for their own benefit.
Alexander further added that they were proud of it, too. He went on to elaborate on the optics of tactical timeouts. They were considered good, while smashing rackets was seen as a bad thing.
“When someone took medical time, such tactical breaks in order to knock down a person without knocking himself down. Now tennis players are proud of this – they call it mind games. When you break rackets, you are bad, and when you deliberately interfere with your opponent, knocking him out of rhythm, you are good. I’m talking about two specific players,” said Bublik (via Championat).
Many players have been accused of misusing the medical timeouts, as Alexander Bublik pointed out. We take a deeper look into it today.
Which players did Alexander Bublik hint at?
Alexander Bublik did not name anyone in his interview. However, Novak Djokovic has had to face the wrath of fans for taking medical timeouts at inopportune moments.
The Serbian returned to the US for the first time in two years to play at the Cincinnati Open. During his match against Carlos Alcaraz, he took a timeout due to the heat. Fans were quick to point out that he did so when he lost the breakpoint to Alcaraz in the second set.
Djokovic lost the break point against the Carlos Alcaraz in the second set of the Final at the ATP Cincinnati and Asking for Medical time Out after that pic.twitter.com/kFmIg1AhRv
— Sajawal Speakes (@sajawal_speakes) August 20, 2023
Djokovic did it as recently as the Paris Masters, when he lost five consecutive games to Tallon Griekspoor. While Novak did find support, others were a little wary. Djokovic famously took a break during the Australian Open final against Dominic Thiem when he looked threatening.
There was a similar incident at the Italian Open this year between Holger Rune and Casper Ruud. Ruud was leading by a set when Rune took a break. This broke Casper’s momentum, and he ended up losing the match.
As Bublik pointed out, medical timeouts can be used for such purposes. As of now, players are allowed to take medical breaks when the situation calls for it.