Alone in the field: Medvedev was the only Russian to reach the fourth round of the Australian Open

Medvedev's confidence

Daniil Medvedev was the first Russian to appear on the court on the sixth day of the Australian Open tennis championship. The second racket of the world was to meet Botik van de Zandshulp, with whom they played in the quarterfinals of the victorious US Open-2021 for the Muscovite. Then the Dutchman put up a worthy resistance, winning one of the sets, so it could be expected that this time he would be able to impose a fight on the favorite.

If you look solely at the score, in Melbourne Medvedev won even more confidently than in New York - 6:4, 6:4, 6:2. Three sets were enough for him to win a ticket to the fourth round, and none of them lasted more than 40 minutes. The Russian confidently acted on the pitch and did not allow van de Zandshulp to realize any of the three break points, while he took the game four times at the reception. Daniil was extremely concentrated, made few mistakes and regularly punished Botik for reckless exits to the net, and in the third installment he did not loosen his grip. In the US, this is what made him spend an extra 40 minutes on the court.

As Medvedev said, the absence of recessions during the match is due to the fact that recently he has begun to pay much more attention to physical training.

Daniil admitted that two or three years ago he could feel tired after the first intense set, but now this is in the past.

As for the meeting with van de Zandshulp, the Russian could not call it simple.

“It sounds strange, but for me Botik played even better than at the US Open.

The only thing was that I served a little worse, and due to this I could cling to the reception, put pressure on him.

At some point, he slipped errors.

I served very well even in the moments when he had break points.

Managed to play them all.

But there were many moments in which everything could turn in both directions, ”Medvedev admitted to Eurosport.

For reaching the quarterfinals, Medvedev will compete with Maxim Cressy.

In early January, the 24-year-old French-American reached the final of the ATP 250 tournament in Melbourne, where he lost to Rafael Nadal.

And at the Australian Open, he has already managed to present a sensation by defeating star compatriot John Isner.

“I never played with him.

Cressy started the year very well.

Played in the final.

He had one or two set points against Rafa.

He is in good shape, serves strong, goes to the net a lot.

I'll try to prepare tactically and physically," Medvedev commented on the upcoming match.

Rublev's defeat

It was expected that Medvedev's initiative would be supported by his compatriot.

Andrei Rublev, for two reasons, approached the meeting with Marin Cilic in the status of a favorite.

Firstly, he was ranked sixth in the ATP rankings and was in excellent shape, and secondly, he had not lost to the Croat since 2015.

Last year, he beat him twice at the Masters.

But this time, things turned out differently.

In the first two games, Cilic acted almost perfectly: he served sharply, almost did not miss and was very good on his feet.

Rublev also looked good, but at decisive moments he could not do anything with the Croat who had gained momentum.

In the first set, everything was decided in the 12th game, and in the second - in a tie-break.

At some point, it seemed that everything was going to the fact that the next game would be the last in this match.

Cilic made a break for the third time and led 3-1, after which he almost succeeded again at the reception.

But suddenly the forces seemed to have left the 33-year-old tennis player.

Marin slowed down and gave four more games in a row without a fight.

It seemed that in the fourth installment, Rublev would continue to dominate the tired opponent, but Cilic began to act extremely rationally.

On his pitch, he worked at maximum speed (75% of the points won), and on someone else's he practically did not resist, waiting for the right moment for a breakthrough.

And he introduced himself like this.

Andrew got nervous and with the score 1:2 he made three unforced errors, giving Marina an excellent opportunity to make a break.

He gladly took advantage of it, but he did not give the opponent a chance to win back - 7:5, 7:6 (7:3), 3:6, 6:3.

Rublev for the second time in a row failed to overcome the barrier of the third round at the Grand Slam tournament.

Fiasco Pavlyuchenkova and Kasatkina

At the end of the sixth day of the Australian Open, not a single Russian woman remained in the women's singles tournament.

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova was considered the nominal favorite in the match with Sorana Kyrstei, but could not cope with the Romanian.

The domestic athlete managed to demonstrate a high level of tennis only in the second game, while in the remaining two she missed too much.

As a result, there is a negative ratio of actively won goals and unforced errors (22:31).

In the third set, Pavlyuchenkova looked almost hopeless.

On her serve, she was only stronger in half of the draws and allowed Kõrsta to make a break twice.

At the reception, Anastasia left behind only five points out of 21. In such conditions, one could not count on success - 3:6, 6:2, 2:6.

Daria Kasatkina also failed to overcome the barrier of the third round of the Australian Open.

On the one hand, her defeat can be called explainable, because the ninth racket of the world, Iga Sviontek, opposed her.

On the other hand, before that, tennis players met each other only once, and in June 2021, the Russian was stronger.

At the Eastbourne tournament, she gave up the opening game, but lost only one game in the next two.

This time, it was not possible to make a comeback.

During the match, the opponents had an almost equal number of break points, but if Sviontek converted four out of eight, then Kasatkina only one out of nine.

In both sets, she twice lost on her own serve.

On the sixth day of the competition in Melbourne, only Vera Zvonareva managed to please the Russian fans.

Together with the Slovak Victoria Kuzhmova, they dealt with the Japanese Nao Hibino and the Polish Alicia Rosolskaya without any problems.

Two games were enough for them to reach the third round.

Sobolenko's success and a gift for Cornet

The next competitive day of the tournament was also remembered for a number of significant events. Not only young Yannick Sinner and Alex de Minaur, but also Kaia Kanepi made it to the 1/8 finals for the first time. During her long career, the 36-year-old Estonian only three times passed beyond the second round of the Australian Open, and this time she got to the fourth. Australian Maddison Inglis looked good only at the start, but quickly wilted, and in the decisive set she got the "steering wheel" - 6:2, 2:6, 0:6.

In the next round, Kanepi will have to fight with the second racket of the world. In Melbourne, Arina Sobolenko performs extremely unevenly and creates problems for herself. At this tournament, she has never managed to win the first game and make less than ten double faults. The meeting with Marketa Vondrousova was no exception. The Czech took the lead, but was unable to do more. The Belarusian tennis player quickly recovered and repeated the best result at the Australian Major.

A beautiful story unfolded on the court during a match involving Alize Cornet. She presented herself with a gift for her 32nd birthday and for the first time since 2009 she made it to the 1/8 finals of the Australian Open. The confrontation with Tamara Zidansek turned out to be difficult. The Frenchwoman lost the first set and lost 1:4 in the second, but still prevailed. To celebrate, she turned to the fans with a request to congratulate her on her birthday, and then conducted while they sang Happy Birthday.

As for the favorites, they mostly performed successfully.

Stefanos Tsitsipas dealt with Benoit Per, and Simona Halep did not leave a chance to Danka Kovinic.

Only Roberto Bautista-Agut stumbled.

In a duel with Taylor Fritz, everything immediately went wrong - the first game ended with a score of 6: 0 in favor of the American.

The Spaniard managed to recover and won the next two game segments, but failed to take the last step.

A tense five-set was left behind by the 22nd racket of the world.