A player takes out the sulphate!: The farewells of Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray? “A shame”

33rd player in the ATP rankings, Alexander Bublik was not very kind to Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray. The Kazakh thus estimated that the end of the careers of the two tennis legends was “a shame”.

Alexander Bublik has started the year 2025 with a bang. Not on, but off the courts. In an interview with the Russian media “Match TV”, the Kazakh player strongly criticized the farewells of Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray, who both left the professional tennis world in 2024.

“It is clear that I am not Rafa, my legacy will be much less important, so to speak. But what happened with Andy Murray and Rafa is a real circus. I can’t call it anything else,” said the 27-year-old tennis player.

Before continuing: “These people have succeeded in everything. Even us tennis players gawked at them in the locker room, and then you see one of them bald and old. It is clear that he is no longer the same and never will be again. In my opinion, it’s even a shame, it’s not a circus. It would probably be more correct to say that.”

“Attempts to cling to echoes of the past”

Bublik thus estimated that it would be necessary to stop “at the top” and not try to push back the deadline despite injuries, like Nadal and Murray. As a reminder, the Spaniard said goodbye to the Davis Cup last November, while the Scotsman withdrew last summer from the Paris Olympic Games.

The latter has since reconverted as coach of Novak Djokovic. A choice which is also not to Bublik’s taste. “These are attempts to hold on to something that no longer exists, echoes of the past. I think that’s a problem. I hope that this will not be the case for me, but I cannot say with certainty,” said the man who hopes to leave the circuit “with peace of mind” around his “35 or 36 years of age”.