ATP Tour

Blockx: How waffles & burgers sparked a career-changing triumph

In ATPTour.com’s series, Sliding Tour Moment, a host of top players reflect on a career defining experience, one that they look back on as pivotal in their journey through tennis. This week, Alexander Blockx reflects on a week in Bratislava that changed his trajectory. Read all instalments of Sliding Tour Moment here.

Alexander Blockx has cemented his status as one of the most exciting young players on the ATP Tour so far in 2026.

Yet much of the success the 21-year-old Belgian has enjoyed this season — reaching his first ATP Tour final in Estoril, his first major quarter-final at the US Open and climbing to a career-high World No. 32 — can be traced back to one week at the end of 2025. Blockx had lost in the second round of three consecutive ATP Challenger events before falling in the final round of qualifying at his home ATP 250 in Brussels. Something, he decided, had to change.

“Where it really turned for me, where I made the switch, was at the end of last year,” Blockx told ATPTour.com when asked about a defining moment in his career. “I got injured at the US Open and then I played three tournaments in France. In those three tournaments, I wasn't playing badly, but I was still losing matches that I should have won nine times out of 10.

“I started questioning, ‘What could I possibly have done better?’ And then I lost three second rounds in a row, like 7-6 in the third. Then in Brussels, at the ATP 250, I had a tough loss in qualies, and then I was like, ‘Okay, I have to do something different’. Then the next Challenger in Slovakia, I won the title. And then it went uphill from then on.”

There are plenty of ways for a player to respond to a string of painful losses. Some go back to the practice court. Others look for a technical fix or try to change something in their game. For Blockx, who was still just 20 and sitting at No. 120 in the PIF ATP Rankings, with a Top 100 breakthrough within reach, the answer was a little different.

The Belgian — who had already won two ATP Challenger titles and was firmly in the race to qualify for the Next Gen ATP Finals — decided to take a short break from tennis altogether.

“First I ate so much sh** to clear my head a bit: A lot of waffles, a lot of burgers. I went all in,” Blockx said. “I was supposed to play the week after in France, because I also had quite a lot of points to defend at that time. But I was like, ‘No, I'm not playing. I don't want to think about tennis. I'm just gonna let it go for one week and just prepare well for Slovakia after’.

“And, I mean, it worked out. It was worth it. I think sometimes when you release everything, and you don't think about it too much, it's for the better.”

After a few days of letting loose and clearing his head, Blockx returned to the practice court and headed for the ATP Challenger in Bratislava. Waiting for him was a draw that, according to him, looked more like an ATP 250 than a Challenger. Three-time major champion Stan Wawrinka was in the field, alongside Top 100 players Alejandro Tabilo, Raphael Collignon and Laslo Djere.

And Blockx, ranked No. 120 in the world, drew fourth seed Jan-Lennard Struff in the opening round.

“I saw the draw and I was like, ‘Fu**’. Struff in the first round of a Challenger’,” Blockx recalled. “The draw itself was like an ATP 250. It was a joke how strong it was. I lost the first set 6-3 playing good tennis, not even playing bad. And then I was like, ‘Am I gonna lose the first round again? Not even playing bad’.

“And then eventually it fell on my side. I won 7-6 in the third and I was back on track. It fell on my side, which the four times before it didn't. And from then I gained so much confidence and yeah, won the title, then Next Gen runner-up, then another title… And it went so fast from there.”

Watch Highlights of Blockx's third-set tie-break win over Struff in Bratislava:

Finally, one of those tight matches fell on Blockx's side, and that proved to be the catalyst. After defeating Struff in a third-set tie-break — in which he also reeled off four consecutive points from 3/5 down — Blockx rode that momentum all the way to the title.

It was his third Challenger trophy and, more importantly, a breakthrough in belief. From there, everything seemed to accelerate, and he backed up that win by qualifying for the 20-and-under Next Gen ATP Finals. There, he turned heads by striking 125 winners across his four victories on the way to the title match. He ultimately fell to Learner Tien, but the Belgian had made his mark.

Blockx then opened his 2026 season by winning another Challenger title in Canberra, defeating fellow rising star Rafael Jodar in the final before carrying that confidence onto the clay, where he earned 14 tour-level wins, highlighted by runs to the semi-finals in Madrid and the championship match in Estoril.

Now, with his first Grand Slam quarter-final at the US Open under his belt, Blockx is continuing to establish himself among the game's emerging stars. And remarkably, he can trace much of it back to a week when he decided to stop thinking about tennis.

Instead, a week of waffles and burgers before, eventually, a Challenger title in Bratislava.

“Mostly it's just mental confidence,” Blockx said when asked about what he had taken from the week in Bratislava. “Of course, after that I started playing better and improved some things. But I think if I have a lot of confidence in my serve, that changes a lot as well.

“My game itself, I play more freely and I take more risks in my game because I know I can compensate for it with my serve. If I don't feel my serve that well, then it gets a bit tricky. But a lot of the confidence gained is mental.”