Alexander Bublik rallies past Borna Coric to lift Montpellier title

Alexander Bublik won the Open Sud de France - Montpellier on Sunday, capping off a week of comeback victories.

The second-seeded Kazakhstani rallied to defeat Borna Coric 5-7, 6-2, 6-3 to reclaim the indoor hard-court ATP 250 title he won in 2022. Bublik's two-hour, 18-minute victory made him the first player in history to win an ATP Tour event after losing the first set in each of his matches.

“I was on the verge of losing in my opening round, now here I am standing with the title,” said Bublik in his on-court interview. “Thank you to the crowd for supporting me throughout the week.

“I’ve seen all these great [former] champions out there, and my face is [among them] in the stadium [because of 2022]. Maybe if I continue playing like this, I will have more of my pictures here, so I’m really happy.”

Bublik had a quick start to his second Lexus ATP Head2Head match against fourth-seeded Coric. He took an early 4-1 lead before his initially frustrated opponent rallied to win six of the next seven games and move ahead.

Bublik, as he had throughout the week in Montpellier, rose to the challenge of falling behind. He maintained excellent rhythm behind his serve and used plenty of drop shots to keep Coric moving around the court.

Despite facing four break points in the deciding set, Bublik maintained his unbeaten record against the Croatian.

Bublik, 26, finished the match with 80 percent (44/55) of the points coming from his first serve, and his 19 aces also helped relieve pressure in his service games.

Bublik now has four ATP Tour titles, and his latest title run will propel him four spots to a new career high of No. 23 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings on Monday.

“Obviously I‘m very sad about the final,” reflected Coric, who is now 3-6 in tour-level finals.

“It was a really good match. I enjoyed it and it was a great fight. I had my chances but he was serving really big in all the big moments and he was the better player today.”

SportsLigue