Rafael Nadal & Andy Murray called out for retiring in 'disgrace' by Alexander Bublik

Apart from being a good tennis player, Alexander Bublik is best known for his 'antics' on and off the court. Whether it's breaking racket or speaking his mind freely, the Kazakhstani tennis player isn't a stranger to controversy.

Bublik might have just created a new tussle after speaking his mind on the retirements of Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray. Murray retired from the sport after the Paris Olympics, which was a fitting end to one of the best of all time when it comes to tennis Olympics.

Nadal retired at the Davis Cup, wearing the Spanish red in his final match. For Bublik, though, both of them kept going for too long, though he used rather colorful language to convey the point.

"One wants to leave at their peak. Clearly, I’m not Rafa, my legacy will be much smaller, if you can call it that. What happened with Andy Murray and Rafa is a circus. I can’t call it any other way,” Bublik said in an interview with Russian media outlet Match TV.

Bublik corrected himself in the same interview, calling it a 'disgrace' instead of a 'circus,' finding that description to be more fitting. However, that's unlikely to make many tennis fans feel any better about it.

“These people achieved everything, even we tennis players looked at them with open mouths in the locker room, and then you see one of them bald and old. It’s clear that he’s not the same and will never be the same. In my opinion, it’s even a disgrace rather than a circus. I guess that’s the right way to put it.”

It's pretty clear that for Alexander Bublik, the best way to retire is when you're still at your peak which is why he spoke of their retirement in such terms. They certainly didn't retire at their peak.

"I think it's a problem" - Alexander Bublik didn't spare Andy Murray off harsh words

While most of what Alexander Bublik said in that interview might be related to Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray didn't escape criticism either. He found Murray's choice to join Novak Djokovic's team to be another version of simply overstaying his time in the sport:

“Now he (Murray) has joined Novak Djokovic’s team. These are attempts to grasp what is no longer there, some echoes of the past. I think it’s a problem."

Bublik also spoke about his own retirement, admitting that he hopes it won't happen with him, but he joked that maybe he'll be in Bangkok playing a Challenger at 36. That's an improvement at least, because he famously said that he wasn't going to play until he's very old.