Roland-Garros: Aleksander Bublik, the whimsical UFO from Kazakhstan

A robot versus a UFO. We're hardly exaggerating when summarizing the quarter-final clash between Jannik Sinner and Alexander Bublik this Wednesday on Centre Court. The Kazakhstani, appearing at this stage of a Grand Slam for the first time, at 27 years old, would be happy to contradict us. "From my point of view, I'm a normal person. It's other people who make me feel different," swears Bublik, the "guy you might find having a good time in the streets of Paris the evening before a match. Not doing anything, but I'm sociable."

An ordinary guy, whose attitude doesn't fit well with the stereotypical profile of the modern tennis player, with an ascetic, almost monastic lifestyle. "Today, everyone is like robots, performance-crazy ," wonders Bublik. "There are some who have won 100 million, 25 titles, and they want even more. I think that's not normal. But I'm the one who's treated as different."

In this environment where everything is sanitized, controlled to the extreme, where the most conscientious move