Despite insults and 50 unforced errors: how Rublev moves towards Djokovic at the Australian Open

Wind test for Rublev

Andrei Rublev followed Daniil Medvedev and Karen Khachanov into the third round of the Australian Open.

The next opponent of the Russian in the tournament was Emil Ruusuvuori, who occupies the 46th place in the ATP ranking.

The biggest achievement in the career of the 23-year-old Finn at the moment is reaching the final of the modest ATP-250 tournament in Pune a year ago, and at TBSh he never got beyond the second round.

The paths of the rivals crossed two years ago in Dubai, and then the Russian won in two sets.

The beginning of the reporting match also remained with Rublev.

The Russian immediately took the opponent's serve, then another one and confidently brought the set to victory - 6:2.

However, in the second game, Ruusuvuori moved away from the starting excitement and played with the sixth racket of the world almost on an equal footing. 

Until the ninth game, the game was point for point, but then Andrey managed to earn three break points.

Finn played two of them, but the Russian tipped the scales in his favor.

After that, he had only to file for a set, but suddenly he made a mistake twice in a row with a right hand, and then the Finn successfully caught him on the counter move and earned two break points.

At a critical moment, Andrey was saved by two aces, as well as an opponent's mistake.

In the second set there was an unpleasant incident.

After one of the draws, Rublev approached the referee on the tower and asked to make a remark to the fans with the Ukrainian flag, who shouted swear words at him.

The judge clarified whether the cloth interfered with him, but Andrei replied that no, only remarks were distracting.

The third game turned out to be the most intense, in which Ruusuvuori over and over again earned break points on Rublev's serve, one of which he managed to realize in the sixth game and lead first 4:2, and then 5:2.

But the Russian did not allow the opponent to take a set on his serve, playing very collected and aggressive.

As a result, tennis players played out to a tie-break, in which Andrey made too many mistakes and lost - 2:7.

In the fourth set, the Russian came out in an angry sportsmanship and began to punish the opponent for the slightest flaws.

Ruusuvuori tried not to give up and in the sixth game, with the score 1:4, he played six break points, but failed to make a change in the course of the meeting.

Andrei did not lose his earned advantage and brought the match to victory.

The statistics of the game are pleasing to the eye: Rublev made 16 aces, took 77% of the draws on the first serve, played eight of the nine break points, and also chalked up 51 actively won balls.

In the context of future battles, only one indicator raises concerns - unforced errors, of which the Russian made as many as 50 during the match with the Finn.

At the post-match press conference, Andrei noted that in the third set he lost his concentration a little, and the Finn, on the contrary, began to play better and harder.

“In the fourth set I managed to show good tennis again and I was able to win.

During the (match. - 

it was very hot during the first round, and now it has become very windy.

In such conditions, it is difficult to play against tennis players like Emil, who have a strong, flat serve ... I am glad that I managed to demonstrate an excellent level, despite the conditions, ”the ATP tennis player quotes.

In the third round, Rublev will face Daniel Evans, whom he considers one of the smartest players on the tour.

According to Andrey, the Briton knows how to bring him to emotions, and it is due to this that he wins.

Their last meeting ended with the defeat of the Russian in two sets, so he does not expect a simple fight in Melbourne either.

“(He knows how. -

) pull the time at the right moment, somewhere he can hit and immediately run to the grid, sometime Come on shout.

He feels these moments very well.

He doesn’t have any super data, but he compensates well with this particular skill, ”Sports quotes the tennis player.

The Briton himself admitted that in the upcoming meeting he intends to play on Rublev's emotional instability.

At the same time, he noted that he and Andrei had not yet met at the Grand Slam tournaments, so their previous games did not count.

“I came to AO with the desire to go to the third round.

It will be a match that I can win, but it will be very difficult... Of course, my plan will be to unbalance him with my play, and the last few times I have been able to do it quite well.

Let's see how he reacts.

I'm sure he will have another plan," Evans said.

The fiasco of Kudermetova against the backdrop of the successes of Gracheva and Alexandrova

In the women's part of the tournament, the Russian representation suffered another unexpected loss.

Following Daria Kasatkina, who lost in the first round, Veronika Kudermetova also leaves Melbourne.

The ninth racket of the world lost with a score of 4:6, 6:2, 2:6 to qualifier Katie Volynets, who had previously knocked out another Russian woman, Evgenia Rodina, from the draw.

This match was full of unforced errors in the performance of Veronica - she accounted for 47 of them, while the opponent made only 28 misfires.

For an American of Ukrainian origin, this victory was one of the most significant in her career - Volynets has never beaten rivals from the top 10 WTA rankings.

After the game, she admitted that she was incredibly inspired by this win, but did not feel any special joy from the victory over the representative of Russia.

Moreover, the athlete said that they speak Russian in their family, although their parents were born in Ukraine.

“I would say that when I go out on the court, I try to put politics aside and focus on tennis.

Although I say so, of course, I always worry about my family in Ukraine.

But I have nothing against the players, I'm just trying to focus on tennis, ”said the 21-year-old tennis player.

Lyudmila Samsonova also covered her racket, losing almost without a fight to Donna Vekic - 3:6, 0:6.

But Ekaterina Alexandrova and Varvara Gracheva made it to the third round of the tournament, although their matches turned out to be different in content.

Alexandrova outright gave the first set to Taylor Townsend - 1:6, but then she was able to turn the tide of the meeting and win a strong-willed victory, winning two sets with a score of 6:2, 6:3.

“The beginning was hard, it was impossible to find a rhythm.

She played with an uncomfortable rotation, also left-handed, the wind and all together.

I felt like I couldn't hit the ball at all.

You try to do one thing, another, nothing happens, the rhythm is even more lost, although it is not there anyway.

From the second set I decided: come what may, I will go forward, on the ball.

It will fly in - good, no - it means you have to come up with something else.

Surprisingly, he began to fly in, ”the Russian woman commented on her success.

Gracheva, in a duel with Lucrezia Stefanini, took the initiative into her own hands from the very beginning and in 1 hour and 20 minutes she made it to the next round - 6:3, 6:1.

Djokovic's easy walk and Ruud's departure

The fourth day of AO brought another sensation - the defeat of the third racket of the world Kasper Ruud from Jenson Brooksby in four games.

The Norwegian, like Rafael Nadal the day before, experienced health problems and took a medical break during the match.

According to Kasper, he felt pain in his stomach, but this is not a new problem - this has happened to him periodically over the past two years.

At the same time, the tennis player did not attribute the defeat to well-being.

He stressed that the opponent simply played better and made far fewer mistakes than he did.

Ruud's defeat at this stage means that he will not be able to compete for the first line of the world rankings at the end of the AO.

Now only Stefanos Tsitsipas and Novak Djokovic can push out Carlos Alcaras, who misses the tournament, and only if they win the title.

While both are on the grid more than confident.

The Greek consistently beat Kenten Alice and Rinki Hidzikata, while the Serbian beat Roberto Carballes-Baena and Enzo Kuako.

However, the latter ruffled the nerves of the former first racket of the world a little.

The first game ended with a confident victory for the Serbian, and in the second game, the tennis players gave out an hour-long marathon.

Neither one nor the other never lost their serves and got to the tie-break, where the Frenchman showed miracles of perseverance and snatched the game from the eminent opponent.

However, the owner of 21 Grand Slam titles played the next two sets in such a way that he left no doubt: what happened was nothing more than an unfortunate misunderstanding.

Djokovic's next opponent will be Aslan Karatsev's offender, Grigor Dimitrov, and in the quarterfinals, Novak can play Rublev if both get to this stage.