ATP Finals alternate who asked rival for 'fight outside' can bank £305k and replace stars

Alexander Bublik is enjoying a milestone moment this week, as he's at the ATP Finals for the first time in his career. The world No. 11 is the first alternate in Turin, meaning he will be called up to replace any player who pulls out of the tournament during the group stage.

Alternates receive £118k ($155k) just for turning up and staying on-site in Turin, and there are extra appearance fees for those who play matches. And Bublik could well get the call-up after some of his rivals sparked injury fears on Monday.

Now that all eight players in the draw have already contested one match, the maximum Bublik - or second alternate Casper Ruud - could receive in appearance fees is £187k ($248k) for playing two matches, or £126k ($165.5k) for competing in one match. And that doesn't include £301k ($396.5k) in prize money for each round-robin win.

While Ruud has competed in the ATP Finals before and reached the final in 2022, this is a new experience for Bublik, who ended the season at a career-high ranking of No. 11 in the world.

The Kazakh turned his season around after dropping outside of the world's top 80 in March, which left him playing some lower-level events on the Challenger Tour. At one particular tournament, the Phoenix Challenger, he invited a rival to go outside and "fight".

Bublik beat Corentin Moutet in the quarter-finals, and they had an altercation during the handshake. While the umpire and supervisor attempted to separate them, the current world No. 11 was heard saying: "Ten minutes outside? Let's go. We have a fight? The French kid is speaking, and he doesn't want to fight. Let's go, we meet in 10 minutes outside."

Bublik and Moutet revived their rivalry at the recent Paris Masters. Ahead of their second-round clash, Moutet said he wanted to "send Bublik home" - but he lost in straight sets, and his words came back to haunt him.

The Kazakh wrote "on the way home" on the camera lens after winning 6-3 7-5, and then explained: "Obviously he spoke too much before the match, you know, he spoke too much, and I just have to punish him, so I had no other option.

"Well, he said that he will do everything to send me home, so it's nice that he lives in Paris and it's not too far with a taxi, you know?"

Bublik must now be ready to step in if someone withdraws from the ATP Finals, and he's also been helping his rivals practice for their matches on-site.

Felix Auger-Aliassime sparked injury concerns on Monday when he called the physical and received a medical timeout during his 7-5 6-1 loss to Jannik Sinner. The No. 8 seed struggled to push off his left leg but later said he wasn't "too concerned" about the issue.

Lorenzo Musetti also looked tired as he suffered a 6-3 6-4 defeat to Taylor Fritz. The Italian jetted straight to Turin after losing in the Athens final on Saturday evening as he had to replace Novak Djokovic in the draw.

"I felt physically that I was a little bit slower in everything that I was doing. In terms of reflexes also. In terms of feeling the ball, I was feeling the ball not really well. Of course, he was hitting really hard. That gave me issues," Musetti later said.

"But regarding the match of tomorrow night, I'm trying my best to recover, to try to analyse what I achieved from today's match. I just played 30 minutes yesterday."