Aryna Sabalenka has progressed at the French Open, but British number one Jack Draper has bowed out.
Sabalenka has started the fighting talk for her French Open semi-final, where she takes on three-time defending champion Iga Swiatek.
Bublik meanwhile stormed into a quarter-final meeting with ATP number one Jannik Sinner after knocking out Draper.
He defeated the Briton in the fourth round at Roland Garros, coming from behind to triumph 5-7, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4.
Draper congratulated Bublik on his victory, with the Kazakhstani star having also knocked out ninth seed Alex de Minaur.
Aryna Sabalenka makes Alexander Bublik top 10 claim after French Open win vs Jack Draper
He carried out a huge 36 drop shots against fifth seed Draper, a stat WTA number one Sabalenka was tasked with discussing in her latest press conference.
Asked why women don’t play drop shots or indeed not as often, she replied: “I have to say the drop shot is quite a risky shot, you have to have good hands or a good understanding of the court to be able to make it and not every girl is that fearless like Bublik.
“I watched that match yesterday and sometimes it was like wow, it just seemed like it was his day. I am not sure he is making that much on drop shots every single match and if he played the way he played against Draper every time he is out there I think he would be in the top 10.”
Why Aryna Sabalenka was supporting Jack Draper later on vs Alexander Bublik
It is Draper who is the ATP top 10 player as opposed to Bublik, with the former fifth in the world rankings and the latter down in 62nd.
But it didn’t look that way on Court Suzanne Lenglen in Paris, where the 27-year-old blew away his opponent and the French Open crowd.
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Along with his remarkable drop shot tally, he fired down eight aces and finished with a first serve points won total of 79%.
Continuing her analysis of his drop shot-heavy display, Sabalenka added: “He was just really going for it. It was a crazy match, honestly.
“I wanted to see the fifth set to be honest. In that fourth set I was supporting Draper because Bublik was doing crazy stuff on the court.
“It was like whatever he would decide to do it would go in and he would just go for the drop shot from the return, it was just like it doesn’t make sense!
“It is quite a risk shot and if you feel this is the day when things are going to work out for you, you definitely have to go for it because it’s a good shot, especially on the clay court where you have extra time and where you overall are a powerful player just to mix it up and make the other player guess, then it’s like we definitely should go more often for that but it is a risky shot and not everyone has that good hands as Bublik had.
“I think nowadays girls try and mix it up and mix the rhythm more often than it used to be, so we are getting better at that.”
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