Bublik says Vegas trip helped him compete with the robots

PARIS :Kazakhstan's trickster Alexander Bublik always brings a novel approach to his matches and off court too he defies convention, describing how a three-day trip to Las Vegas to let off steam helped turn around his year.

The 27-year-old reached the fourth round of a Grand Slam for only the second time in his career on Saturday as he beat Portugal's Henrique Rocha 7-5 6-1 6-2, setting up a clash with Briton's fifth seed Jack Draper.

Bublik reached a high of 17 in the rankings last year but dropped to 82 in March after a first-round exit at Indian Wells left him questioning whether he had what it took to compete with what he calls the tennis 'robots'.

The answer? A trip to The Strip.

"To be honest, my fall was not linked with lack of attitude and lack of practising. It was the exact opposite. I just burned out because I was waiting for the results to come," he told reporters.

"I was like, if I practise more, if I hit better forehands, it will come. It didn't, and then I got to the point, like, Okay, why am I sacrificing so much? For what?

"My coach suggests a trip to Vegas in between Indian Wells and Phoenix. He's like, 'man, if you play like this, we're going to be out of tennis, out of the conversation by Wimbledon."

Asked if the trip to the notorious Nevada playground was a training trip to Vegas or a Vegas trip to Vegas, Bublik said: "No, Vegas, Vegas, like a hangover thing Vegas, yeah.

"It was a good three days. I arrived three hours before the match in Phoenix. I had just let it all out. I said, I'm useless now, I can't win a match, so let it be, let's see how it goes."

What happened was that Bublik reached the final in the second-tier Challenger event and something clicked.

During the claycourt season he made the fourth