Anna Blinkova dumps Rybakina out of Australian Open after historic tie-break
The third seed Elena Rybakina’s attempt to reach back-to-back Australian Open finals ended in a 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (20) second-round defeat by the Russian Anna Blinkova after a historic tiebreak that lasted more than 30 minutes on Thursday.
With little to separate the players in the final set, Blinkova held her nerve in an epic tie-break lasting 42 points and dropped to her knees as she clinched a famous win on her 10th match point, bringing the Rod Laver Arena crowd to their feet. It was the longest singles tiebreak in in grand slam history.
“This day I’ll remember for the rest of my life, on this court with this crowd, it’s the best of my life so far,” said Blinkova, shortly after she shared a hug with Rybakina at the net as the crowd gave the pair a standing ovation.
“Thank you to the crowd for encouraging me, it gave me so much energy to fight until the end. It was super tough, I tried to stay focused on every point. I had so many match points and tried to be aggressive at these moments but my hand was shaking, and my legs too.” Having saved six match points, Blinkova
walked away to huge cheers after writing “NEVER GIVE UP” on a courtside camera lens.
The big-hitting former Wimbledon champion Rybakina, who lost to Aryna Sabalenka in last year’s final in Melbourne, began the match sluggishly as her former doubles partner capitalised with an early break, which proved enough for her to go on and wrap up the opening set.
The 25-year-old Blinkova built up the pressure and pounced on her opponent’s serve again in the second set to take a 2-1 lead but the Russia-born Kazakhstani Rybakina responded with a break back as the pair were evenly matched after eight games.
The Brisbane champion, Rybakina, shifted up a gear and drew level at one set apiece before the players traded breaks freely in the decider, which was settled in a tie-break for the ages with even the chair umpire struggling to control his laughter at 19-19.
The gutsy Blinkova went on to earn her best career victory by ranking and equalled her best grand-slam performance, and will take on the 26th seed, Jasmine Paolini of Italy, next.