Alexander Bublik used all parts of the racket at the BNP Paribas Open on Monday afternoon, with varying degrees of success.
Early in the third set of his third-round match against Rinky Hijikata, Bublik hit a winner with the handle. That’s right — with the handle. It wasn’t a difficult shot, of course. The 10th-ranked Kazakh set up what should have been a routine, nondescript put-away with a well-placed forehand approach shot. Bublik then answered Hijikata’s short reply with an unusual — but not unprecedented for him — shot selection.
It was not the first time in the match that Bublik made noise with his racket.
After losing the second in a tiebreaker, the 28-year-old slammed his frame on the ground five times — breaking basically the entire thing into smithereens.
Bublik eventually lost 6-7(3), 7-6(3), 6-3.