Kazakhstan's top-ranked men's singles player, Alexander Bublik, explained at a press conference why he decided to play doubles at the Almaty Open, infohub.kz reports.
In the singles draw, Bublik is seeded third. He has also entered the doubles draw alongside fellow Kazakh Zangar Nurlanuly. The pair received a wild card — a special invitation from the organizers.
Nurlanuly will also compete in the singles draw via a wild card. The 18-year-old Kazakh is making his ATP 250 debut.
"Zangar and I are somewhat acquainted; we've practiced a couple of times. I really like his aggressive style of play. But I'm not even so much concerned about his style and results at the moment. It seems to me that he is a fairly determined young man. I like his competitive audacity on the court," Bublik said.
According to him, it was important to see how Nurlanuly would behave alongside him. "We stepped onto the court — and from the first shot I felt that he wanted to impress me somewhere, to show that he can do it too. Confidence was coming to him, and this drive could lead him to great results," the tennis player noted.
The country's top tennis player emphasized that under other circumstances he would never have played doubles in Almaty.
"But Zangar wrote to me, he wasn't afraid: 'Hello, let's play doubles.' I said: 'Well, let's play.' I like his tennis, but most of all I like how unafraid he is, how confident he is that he's good," Bublik concluded.
In the first round of the Almaty Open singles, Nurlanuly will face Czech Tomáš Macháč.