Bublik with a blacked-out racquet

I feel like I have written this headline before. “Bublik with a blacked-out racquet”. But he has, yet again, been testing new frames.

There was a lot of commotion and speculation around Stefanos Tsitsipas new racquet, but he is not the only one testing something new. We also reported on Borna Coric playing with a blacked-out HEAD frame in our recent pro player racquet video on YouTube.

Alexander Bublik went from playing a Wilson Six One 95 as a junior to a Yonex Ezone 98 for several years. He tested the HEAD Gravity Pro for a brief stint and then moved over to the Tecnifibre Tfight 305S for a few years. Now he has been seen at the Phoenix Challenger, the Arizona Tennis Classic, with a blacked-out racquet.

It is interesting how pros can start looking over at their hitting partners, colleagues or opponents and wonder what racquets they play with and then decide to give it a go. We have seen this lead to switches many times over the years. Allegedly, Rublev tested Zverev’s racquet some years back, which led to him switching to the Gravity Pro. It is possible that Bublik has been inspired by Tsitsipas’ recent success or even practiced with him recently. Or maybe he simply has noticed the progress of players like Alcaraz, or more recently Rune.

No matter what, looking at the blacked-out frame, it is easy to guess that it is another Babolat Pure Aero 98 or Aero VS with black paint on it.

What is Bublik’s new racquet?

You can see Bublik playing with the new racquet on the YouTube channel Whatashot. I also got some insider info thanks to my nice tennis nerd network of racquet spies :)

Allegedly, Bublik bought a bunch of Aero 98 and a black spray paint can and painted the racquets himself. He had tried the frame in practice, liked it, and decided to take it into a match.

If you look at the racquets in pictures close, you can see some yellow paint sticking out. It is not the most professional black-out, but that is understandable if Bublik went to buy and paint a few racquets himself.

The Aero 98 is becoming a huge talking point on tour with pros deciding to test it, even though their regular racquets are more control-oriented.

As we wrote in our review and we have talked about on the podcast many times, the Aero 98 is creating a very annoying ball for the opponent. It is not a perfect racquet by any means and won’t suit everyone, but for a 98, it generates an annoyingly spinny and heavy shot.

This is why we see players we might not expect decide to test it. Will Bublik stick with the Aero? Time will tell, but no matter if he does, he seems to be a guy who can switch between different models without skipping a beat.