Alexander Bublik—cat napper and challenger extraordinaire…
Check out this hilarious footage of Bublik challenging an errant call during the second set. The World No.51 has a nice lie-down while he waits for Hawk-Eye to adjudicate.
Bublik, who subbed in as a lucky loser after Felix Auger-Aliassime pulled out with an ankle injury, won the second-set tiebreaker but eventually lost the match to Rublev, 6-1 6-7(3) 7-6(6).
It was the second time in as many weeks that Rublev defeated Bublik in three sets—the Russian defeated the Kazakh 6-1 3-6 6-4 last week at Moscow en route to his second ATP title.
In other early action in Vienna Pablo Carreno Busta defeated Denis Shapovalov 6-3 7-5, Mikhail Kukushkin knocked off Borna Coric 6-4 6-4 and Sam Querrey slid past Adrian Mannarino 6-3 6-4.