Victories of Medvedev and Rublev
On the sixth day of the Australian Open, all the remaining representatives of Russia in the men's singles were supposed to go to court. The first to play was Andrei Rublev, whose rival was David Goffen. The Belgian was considered the first serious test for the Russian, who shockly began the season with victories at the competitions in Doha and Adelaide.
The meeting did not deceive the expectations of the fans and turned out to be a worthy confrontation of tennis players from the top 20. They spent three hours on the court, during which the Russian managed to recover from the failure in the first set and pick up the three remaining ones. In general, the match turned out to be equal, the opponents were in no way inferior to each other, and the key factor was the difference in unforced errors. Goffen allowed them much more often (51:32), which cost him the continuation of the struggle in the tournament. And this despite the fact that by the number of break points he won, he prevailed. True, they all came to the start of the duel.
For Rublev, this victory was the 15th in a row and the 11th in the current season, but it will be very difficult to extend the series. In the fourth round, he will fight with the seventh racket of the planet Alexander Zverev, whom he not only never defeated, but also did not win a game against him. In turn, the German spent extremely little effort and only in three sets figured out with Fernando Verdasco.
Unlike his compatriot, Daniil Medvedev paved his way to the next round almost without problems. It took him only 1 hour 44 minutes to deal with Alexei Popyrin. The Russian player acted perfectly on the pitch, which reflects both 72% of the won draws, and just one break point from an opponent who remained unrealized. In turn, the US Open finalist five times took the vis-a-vis off guard and dominated the site, and even medical interruptions did not break his mood.
“I'm glad I won in three sets. I still have good memories of last year when I played for the first time in the Grand Slam tournament in the second week. I hope this time I will also go far. I will try to win as many matches as possible. I hope to win all seven meetings here, ”the ATP press service quoted Medvedev as saying.
The next opponent of the first racket of Russia will be Stan Wavrinka. Until now, the Swiss have never won a full-time confrontation, but will have a slight advantage. On Saturday, he did not have to conduct a full match due to John Isner injury.
It is worth noting that, if successful, in the fourth round of domestic fans, a duel between Medvedev and Rublev in the quarter finals will await. This event will be unique, because previously two Russian tennis players met at a maximum at the 1/8 final stage. In 2008, in Melbourne, Mikhail Youzhny defeated Nikolai Davydenko.
The Russian delivers 🇷🇺
Fourth seed @DaniilMedwed def. Alexei Popyrin 6-4 6-3 6-2 to advance to the round of 16 at the #AusOpen for the second time.
Next up: Former champion Stan Wawrinka 🍿 # AO2020pic.twitter.com / xfARzJY3bs
Schwartzman's discontent
As it turned out, the rise in popularity of Medvedev did not impress everyone, and some of his sports colleagues have no respect for him at all. Earlier, Daniel was already embroiled in a conflict with the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, and now Diego Schwartzman spoke quite harshly about him. In particular, the Argentine was dissatisfied with the behavior of the Russian at the ATP Cup.
“It’s hard for me to judge how our conflict looked from the side. We had a good relationship. We trained together several times, and I did not expect him to react like that. He gestured to the Argentine bench, which did nothing at all, shouted at me, ”Schwarzman quoted infobae.com as saying.
According to the Argentinean, he allowed himself to engage in a skirmish with a Russian and even called him an idiot, after which he decided to stop communicating with him. In many ways, this was influenced by the behavior of Medvedev, who allegedly pretended as if nothing had happened.
“I stopped talking to him because I don’t separate what is happening on the court from what is happening outside. I think that at the site you are the same as in life. Have you ever seen Rafa or Roger behave this way? Never, ”added Schwartzman.
Defeat Khachanov
However, not all Russian tennis players were able to continue their journey on the courts of Melbourne. Karen Khachanov gave the fans an unforgettable 266-minute thriller, but in the end lost in five games. An impenetrable obstacle was Nick Kiryos.
The atmosphere around the match was so heated that it grew into a conflict in the stands, where two fans staged a hand-to-hand fight. However, this mood was not transmitted to Khachanov. He started the meeting again quite relaxed, for which he paid with two break points and a lag in sets. True, Karen quickly pulled himself together, as a result of which a fierce struggle ensued in the remaining parties, the outcome of each of which was decided exclusively at tie-breaks.
The first of them took Kiryos, as a result of which Khachanov was in an unenviable situation. In the remaining time, the Australian had more than one chance to complete the confrontation in his favor, but the Russian fiercely resisted. First, he returned to the game from the score 2-4 in the third set, then he played two match-balls on tie-breaks and brought the matter to a shortened game in the final game. But at a key moment, he sent the ball into the net and sent Nick into the next round.
It is worth giving credit to Kiryos, who showed bright and attacking tennis, as evidenced by 97 “winners” with 52 unforced errors. Khachanov, on the other hand, had slightly fewer oversights, but the difference in actions was more than substantial. At the same time, on the first serve both acted beyond all praise, as evidenced by more than 80% of the won draws.
Favorites Confidence
The next opponent of the owner of the courts will be Rafael Nadal, who has not yet lost a set in Melbourne. This time Roberto Bautista-Agut appeared in the role of an extras, who failed to provide worthy resistance to his compatriot. It is worth recalling that a year ago he did not give a single game until the final, in which he was defeated by Novak Djokovic.
Without any problems, Gael Monfils and Dominic Tim came to the next round. The Frenchman extended the win-win series in the confrontation with Ernest Gulbis to four matches, and the Austrian avenged Taylor Fritz. The last time the athletes crossed at the Laver Cup and then the American was stronger in three sets.
Now, tennis players will have to determine the name of the future quarter-finalist in a full-time duel. It is worth noting that if Monfils had previously gone so far in Australia, then for Tim this could be the best achievement at the championship in Melbourne.
🇪🇸 VAMOS 🇪🇸
In the battle of the Spaniards, @RafaelNadal dispatches of compatriot Pablo Carreno Busta 6-1 6-2 6-4 to reach the fourth round at the #AusOpen for the 13th time. # AO2020pic.twitter.com / WvNo5nfOUN
Success Pavlyuchenkova
Only one representative of Russia in the person of Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova remained in the women's net. By this moment, she had not lost a set, but was hardly considered a favorite, because her rival was the second racket of the world Karolina Plishkova. The athletes met each other six times, but the Russian woman was never able to tip the scales in her favor. The Czech won five matches in a row in two games and only in 2018 allowed her counterpart to impose a fight.
The meeting turned out to be very intense, and Pavlyuchenkova twice lost with a break in the course of both sets, but found the strength to restore parity. As a result, everything was decided on tie-breaks, where the Russian woman turned out to be a little more successful. She acted as the first number and owned the initiative, as evidenced by 51 actively won the ball. And even a set of 11 double and 43 unforced errors did not prevent her from gaining the upper hand.
For Pavlyuchenkova, this victory became one of the most significant in several years. The last time she beat one of the leaders of the general classification in 2017, when she did not leave a chance for Angelica Kerber at the tournament in Monterrey. Thus, she not only for the 33rd time left the tennis player from the top 10 WTA ratings out of work, but also approached the repetition of last year’s result at the Australian Open. Then she reached the quarter finals, where she lost to Daniel Collins.
In the next round, Pavlyuchenkova will battle with another ex-first racket of the world. After the mass exodus of the favorites, the fans would hardly have been surprised at the failure of Angelica Kerber, but she still managed to cope with the tennis player from the second hundred rating Camila Georgie. An overly passive style almost cost a German ticket to the 1/8 finals, but a serious loss in the number of “winners” (15:49) more than compensated for the difference in unforced errors (16:65).
During their career, athletes met each other 13 times and in six of them Pavlyuchenkova took over. At the same time, the girls never crossed on the courts of Melbourne, and the last two duels remained for Kerber. In 2018, she was stronger at the Masters in Miami and Cincinnati.
"I love the heat even though everyone is saying 'You're from Russia, you love cold weather.' NO! I hate it actually. "
Come hang in the heat any time, @NastiaPav ☀️ # AO2020 | # AusOpenpic.twitter.com / wabhjg2QAo
Sensational defeats of Bencic and Svitolina
On this day, the tournament lost significantly fewer famous athletes, but also could not do without unexpected results. One of these was the defeat of Belinda Bencic from Annette Contaveit, and his peremptory was particularly noteworthy. The seventh racket of the planet took just one game, having suffered the biggest failure in six years. In 2014, she was beaten by Carolina Wozniacki with a score of 6: 0, 6: 0.
The company was made up of her and the fifth racket of the world Elina Svitolina, who could not get into the Australian Open quarterfinal for the third time in a row. On her way stood Garbinier Mugurus, who on that day had no equal in the pitch. The Spaniard won 21 of 25 rallies on the first ball, and 12 of 20 - on the second, which became one of the key success factors. As a result, there are only three lost games and a ticket to the next round. Sheathed racket and offenders Maria Sharapova. Donna Vekic was unable to cope with the 18-year-old Iga Šventek.
However, this debacle of the leaders ended. Simone Halep and Kike Bertens dealt with Julia Putnitseva and Zarina Diyas without any problems, respectively, and Elise Mertens was stronger than Catherine Bellis. But given the fact that the American takes only 600th place in the WTA ranking, the Belgians expected a more confident victory. In fact, it took her three sets and 2 hours 1 minute of time.
🇪🇸 UNSTOPPABLE 🇪🇸 @ GarbiMuguruza hits 31 winners to knock out 5th seed Elina Svitolina 6-1 6-2, and reach the #AusOpen fourth round for the fifth time. # AO2020pic.twitter.com / oHfgGi7EUH
- #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 25, 2020