NEW YORK – The US Open started with a controversy start thanks to a phrase loaded with contempt and offense toward the 2020 champion.
“I’m fucking sick of giving their fucking careers back to disabled people,” said Alexander Bublik during their first-round matchup. Opposite was Dominic Thiem, who suffered a serious injury in hiss right wrist in 2021 and has slowly been finding form.
“Yeah, it’s a tough comment, something you shouldn’t say in general, you know, just out of respect. Maybe he didn’t mean it that way,” Thiem replied later at the press conference.
Twitter user @tennis_inmyhead reported the comment after translating it from Russian and soon CLAY confirmed the information with one of its readers of Kazakh nationality.
As checked with a Russian native speaker of our community, Aleksandr Bublik did say that.
“I'm fuckin' sick of giving fucking careers back to handicapped people”
(Меня заебало, блять, карьеру возвращать инвалидам) https://t.co/6Z8PwCpRXr
— Clay (@_claymagazine) August 28, 2023
It was in the middle of the second set, in a match that ended with a clear result in favor of the Austrian by 6-3, 6-2 and 6-4. Although still far from the level that led him to win the title of that edition in the middle of the pandemic with empty stands, Thiem signed on the Grandstand of the Billie Jean National Tennis Center his first victory in a major tournament since the Australian Open 2021.
“I never thought about retiring. I’m still very young. Coming back to New York always helps. There’s something with the energy that this city, this tournament has. I’m especially happy with today’s win. First Grand Slam win in a long time, I feel good, I had good preparation, I played my first ATP final after the injury,” Thiem added.
Bublik, meanwhile, responds to his facet of character on the court. In addition to being the tennis player with the most underarm serves, he has a love-hate relationship with tennis (especially with clay), interacts with the crowd, and is capable of trying to hit a ball in a position for an easy smash, instead with the handle of his racquet during an ATP final.
His father forced him to play tennis since he was two years old. He confessed to CLAY during an interview last year in New York: “I never had the option of not being a tennis player. My father told me to play, and I played. My mother supported him. I was two years old, probably. There was never the option of whether I wanted to or not. That’s the way my family worked. I don’t think it came up as a question.”
In 2022 he became Vasily’s father. In the interview he also told that he does not want his son to follow his same path.
