WHAT HAPPENED: Pablo Andujar of Spain, ranked No. 70 in the world and making his first appearance in a US Open third round, took out No. 75-ranked Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan, 6-4, 6-3, 6-2. Andujar, whose success on the ATP Tour has come mostly on clay courts, played a solid, steady match against Bublik, who in contrast threw caution to the wind throughout, throwing in numerous drop shots and forays to the net.
Andujar had 39 winners in the match to just 19 unforced errors and converted on five of 10 break point chances. Bublik had 35 unforced errors, saw only two break points on the Spaniard's serve and won just 39 percent of the points on his own second serve.
The 33-year-old Andujar, playing in his seventh US Open, moves into the fourth round at a Grand Slam for the first time in his career. He will take on the winner of Saturday’s night’s match between Gael Monfils, the No. 13 seed and Denis Shapovalov of Canada.
The 6-foot-5 Bublik, just 22 years old and making his first appearance in a Grand Slam third round, kept Andujar guessing for much of the match. He did manage seven aces and 38 winners in total. However, he also attempted an unusually high number of drop shots from the baseline, the majority of which were tracked down by the speedy Andujar for winners.
In the first set, Bublik managed to save three break points in the sixth game—including one where he ran down a lob and then a drop shot for a forehand winner—to pull even at 3-all. But serving at 4-5, the Kazakhstani missed two drop shot attempts and double-faulted to help Andulajar capture the first break of the match, and the set.
While Bublik seemed to play a loose first set, he became even more daring and less predictable in the second. Perhaps a bit fatigued from having won two five-set matches in the first two rounds, Bublik followed many of his serve returns into the net, to mixed results. With Bublik serving at 1-2, Andujar hit a winner off one of Bublik’s drop shots on his way to securing an early break in the set. Serving at 5-3, Andujar held at love to capture set two.
Bublik did put up a bit of a fight in the third, going up a break and 2-0. But it was short-lived, as Andujar ran of the final six games of the match.
WHAT IT MEANS: Andujar is a an ATP Tour veteran who played his first Grand Slam in 2008 and has been ranked as high as No. 32 in the world. It’s not a huge surprise that he would make it to a major Round of 16. It’s just a surprise that it came on hard courts of the US Open.
Most of his success has come on clay, the surface on which he's won all four of his career ATP titles. In 2019, he’s won three Challenger tournaments on clay and reached the finals of an ATP clay-court event in Marrakech, Morocco.
Yet, he’s impressed so far in New York. In the first round, he beat Kyle Edmund, the No. 30 seed, in a four-hour, 21-minute five-setter. He followed that up with a straight-sets win over No. 49-ranked Lorenzo Sonego of Italy in the second round. In each of his three wins so far in New York, he’s managed to keep his unforced errors significantly lower than his opponent’s, including against Edmund, when he had 54 errors to Edmund’s 77. Whether that kind of consistency will be enough in the fourth round, against either Monfils or Shapovalov, is a valid question. But one thing we do know: Andujar will not beat himself.
For Bublik, even in his loss and unconventional play he impressed as a young player with immense talent, and he’s had a solid summer to build on. He started the year ranked No. 162. Along with his career-best Grand Slam showing here, he’s won three Challenger events in 2019 and reached his first ATP final in July at the Hall of Fame Open in Newport, R.I., where he lost to John Isner.
MATCH POINT: In the second round, Bublik came back from two sets down to a win a five-set battle over Thomas Fabbiano of Italy. In the first round he outlasted Santiago Giraldo of Colombia in five. He could not repeat the feat on Saturday.
