Alexander Bublik went on a racket-smashing rampage and then cut himself by slamming a cooler during his third-round match against Brandon Nakashima of the USA at the 2026 Shanghai Masters. Bublik’s rage-filled outburst unsurprisingly drew reactions from numerous fans, who were shocked by the Kazakh’s behavior.
Bublik had two set points in the first set of his match against Nakashima and squandered them both. Eventually, the former World No. 10 lost the set. Clearly frustrated at himself for losing both set points as well as the set, the 29-year-old Kazakh first smashed his racket repeatedly. He subsequently made his way to his courtside bench, kicked it, and then with his right arm, smashed a cooler placed beside the bench.
Several tennis fans on Reddit expressed their shock at Bublik’s loss of emotional control.
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One fan wrote:
“This is just crazy behavior, and if he had gotten a more serious injury, he would have nobody to blame but himself. I can only imagine the reactions if someone like Zverev had done this.”
Despite his meltdown, Alexander Bublik registers a gritty comeback win to set up a clash against the top seed at the Shanghai Masters
Bublik eventually turned things around in his favor and produced a 6-7(7-9), 6-3, 7-6(5) win to progress to the fourth round of the 2026 Shanghai Masters. The Kazakh, seeded No. 19 at the penultimate Masters 1000 event of the year, previously defeated Tomas Machac of Czechia in straight sets in the second round to get his campaign underway in fine fashion.
Up next for Bublik is a fourth-round clash against top seed Alexander Zverev, with the latter surviving a third-round scare of his own against Quentin Halys of France. Remarkably, it’s the Kazakh who holds the upper hand in his head-to-head against the German two-time Major champion, having defeated the latter in three of their past four ATP Tour-level meetings.
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