It was a match that turned Court 12 into a crucible of nerves. Alexander Bublik, seeded tenth, had to dig deep on Tuesday to see off Thanasi Kokkinakis 6:4, 3:6, 7:6, 3:6, 4:6 in almost four hours. The Australian bowed out in the opening round — but delivered a performance that went far beyond an ordinary first-round exit.
Kokkinakis strikes first, Bublik hits back
The first set belonged to the underdog. Kokkinakis played with freedom, held serve comfortably and broke Bublik at the crucial moment before claiming the set 6:4. The Kazakh initially found no rhythm against the Australian's aggressive grass-court tennis. In the second set, however, Bublik turned the tide: he improved his first-serve efficiency and took the set convincingly at 6:3. What followed was the emotional centrepiece of the match.
The third set produced an evenly contested exchange that reached its peak in the tiebreak. Kokkinakis edged it 12:10 — a dramatic battle of nerves that handed him the set and, seemingly, a psychological lift as well. Bublik, who had fallen in the opening round at Wimbledon 2025 against Jaume Munar, found himself under pressure once again.
Bublik finds the decisive break
But the Kazakh refused to waver. In the fourth set Bublik reasserted his dominance and won 6:3, levelling the match at two sets apiece. In the fifth and deciding set, it was reportedly the break in the fifth game that proved the turning point. Bublik secured that crucial advantage and closed out the set 6:4.
The statistics paint a clear picture: Bublik struck 28 aces at a first-serve percentage of 68 and won 84 per cent of points on his first serve. His return games were modest — a winning rate of just 13 per cent — yet he converted when it mattered most, converting 33 per cent of his break points while Kokkinakis managed only 17 per cent. Kokkinakis himself hit 27 aces and 59 winners, but 43 unforced errors proved too costly in the critical phases.
A triumph of willpower — and what comes next
For Kokkinakis, the defeat means another opening-round exit at a Grand Slam — in seven Wimbledon appearances he has never reached the second round — yet the context lends this display a special significance. The Australian had missed Wimbledon 2025 entirely and in February of that year underwent an extraordinary surgical procedure: a donor Achilles tendon was grafted onto his pectoral muscle, which had been damaged since 2019. The fact that just months later he pushed a seeded top-ten player to five sets on the lawns of SW19 is, in itself, a remarkable story.
Alexander Bublik meets Frenchman Kyrian Jacquet in the second round. After his early exit in Halle as defending champion and his semifinal run in Stuttgart, the Kazakh heads into his next assignment with growing confidence — even if this victory on Court 12 was anything but a comfortable stroll.
