Bublik stuns Draper at Roland Garros: 'Best moment of my life'

Alexander Bublik's breakthrough Roland Garros run continued Monday with a four-set upset of Jack Draper, his second Top 10 win of the week.

Never having been beyond the second round at the Paris major, even dating back to his junior days, Bublik also came back from two sets down to defeat Alex de Minaur this fortnight. His 5-7, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 victory against Draper made him first Kazakhstani man to reach a singles Grand Slam quarter-final in history.

"Sometimes in life there's only one chance, and I had a feeling that that was mine, and I couldn't let it slip," an emotional Bublik said in an on-court interview, after a full minute's standing ovation from the Court Suzanne-Lenglen crowd. "Standing here, it's the best moment of my life, period."

At No. 62 in the PIF ATP Rankings, Bublik is the lowest-ranked man to earn two Top 10 wins at Roland Garros since No. 100 Andrei Medvedev beat Pete Sampras and Gustavo Kuerten to reach the 1999 final. The 27-year-old Bublik, who hit a career-high of World No. 17 last May, has moved to the brink of the Top 40 behind his four Paris wins.

Against Draper, who is up to No. 4 this week in the PIF ATP Live Rankings, Bublik won 79 per cent of his first-serve points and converted on five of six break points, according to Infosys Stats. The victory was his first in three Lexus ATP Head2Head matchups with the British No. 1.

Bublik with tears in his eyes, and a whole lot of pride in his heart ❤️

What an exceptional performance out there today 🙌#rolandgarros #bublik pic.twitter.com/VOurUm1h8Y

— ATP Tour (@atptour) June 2, 2025

Bublik had reached to the fourth round once before at a major, at Wimbledon in 2023. The biggest surprise is not that he has advanced one round further, but that he has done it on the red clay of Roland Garros. All of Bublik's four tour-level titles and 11 finals have come on either hard or grass courts. His 25 wins and 41 per cent win rate on clay entering Roland Garros are both his lowest marks across all surfaces.

This season, he reached the fourth round at the Madrid ATP Masters 1000 and won the Turin ATP Challenger Tour event on clay.

Bublik will bid to continue his dream  Roland Garros run against Jannik Sinner or Andrey Rublev, who will square off in Monday's evening match to complete the quarter-final lineup in Paris.