Psychological barrier: Rublev lost to Djokovic at the Australian Open and for the seventh time could not get into the semi-finals of the TBSH

Fiasco Rublev

For Andrei Rublev, the meeting with Novak Djokovic at the Australian Open was of fundamental importance.

To be considered a full-fledged representative of the elite, a tennis player needs not only to successfully perform at ordinary ATP tournaments, but also to get to the decisive stages in the majors.

And if everything is in order with the first Russian, which is confirmed by 12 titles, then with the second, things are much worse.

Prior to these competitions, he only reached the quarterfinals of the TBSh six times, but he never managed to overcome this barrier.

And in five cases, he suffered defeat in three sets.

Thus, success in the duel with Djokovic allowed Rublev to kill two birds with one stone: for the first time to reach the semi-finals of the Grand Slam tournament and clearly demonstrate that he is able to beat the strongest at key stages.

And the moment for this was almost perfect.

Although Djokovic is still incredibly dangerous, a recent hip injury makes life difficult for him and does not allow him to show his maximum.

However, Rublev failed to take advantage of the chance.

At times, he acted great: he took right through, powerfully attacked with branded strikes from forehand, but all the pluses were blocked by a colossal number of mistakes.

If you look at the final figures, you may get the impression that Andrey did not miss much more often than Novak (29:21), but in fact, those misfires that were qualified as “forced” were not included in the statistics.

Although many of them were made in episodes when the Russian was literally obliged to complete the draw in his favor, but due to excessive nervousness he sent the ball either into the net or out of bounds.

Once again, Rublev's double mistakes speak of psychological problems.

On the one hand, there were only three of them, on the other hand, two of them were allowed with the score "less" and led to the loss of the most important games.

It was the failure to hit the square twice in a stressful situation that led to Djokovic's first break in the opening set, and then allowed him to lead 5-2 in the second.

At the same time, Novak did not take any of the opponent's innings himself - due to actively won balls.

In all three remaining cases, Andrey's misses took place, and one of them was not provoked by a Serb.

Despite all the difficulties, Rublev had a chance to seize the initiative.

In total, he earned five break points: two - at the very end of the first set, and three more - in the second after he himself gave the pitch.

If he realized at least half of them, he could well not only make life difficult for Djokovic, but also turn the tide of the game in the second game.

However, the ex-first racket of the world each time showed the champion's calmness and miraculously got out of difficult situations.

In this he was often helped by aces, of which there were 14 pieces.

As a result, the Serbian confidently beat the Russian and for the 44th time reached the semi-finals of the TBS - 6:1, 6:2, 6:4.

“Probably there were a lot of moments when, with the score “over”, “under”, either I make a little mistake in a small out, or he plays great, hits the line, or at an important moment I send the ball to the cable.

Or I will predict, I will run after the shortened one and pick up an elementary ball.

Or like at a break point, when he did everything from the summer ... into a small out.

There were plenty of such moments in two starting sets, and in the first game of the third ... I don’t think the score for the game, given how many break points I earned, how many times there were “more” on my serve and so on, ”- said the Russian Sports.ru.

For a ticket to the final, Djokovic will compete with the American Tommy Paul, whom no one bet on even in the wildest forecasts.

Before the start of the Australian Open, he was ranked 35th in the rankings, had only one victory in the ATP competition on his track record, and never got beyond the fourth round at the Majors.

In 2022, he went three laps at Wimbledon, but then lost to Cameron Norrie.

However, this time everything turned out extremely well for the 25-year-old tennis player.

Of course, much of its success can be attributed to the lightweight mesh.

On the way to the semifinals, the American did not meet with a single status tennis player, and the most famous of his opponents was the Spaniard Roberto Bautista-Agut (24th seed), whom he dealt with in four sets.

In the 1/4 finals, 20-year-old compatriot Ben Shelton was waiting for him at all, whose breakthrough was also the result of a fortunate combination of circumstances.

The Atlanta native held his own and, thanks to 24 aces and a decent serve percentage, put up decent resistance for three hours.

But the lack of experience did not allow him to count on more.

In unforced errors, he almost doubled his opponent (50:26), which became a key factor.

The more sophisticated and cold-blooded Paul took over in four games and already guaranteed himself a place in the top 20 of the ATP rankings.

Triumph Sobolenko

The two remaining quarter-finals in the women's singles were not the most intense and both ended in straight sets.

In one of them, Arina Sobolenko literally crushed Donna Vekic, giving her a total of five games - 6:3, 6:2.

And this despite the fact that the Belarusian made a lot of mistakes, and leveled the dividends from nine aces with the same number of doubles, and in general she let her opponent play.

In particular, she provided the Croatian native with 14 break points, while she herself earned one less.

But it's one thing to have a chance to take the game at the reception, and quite another to do it.

If Sobolenko managed to succeed five times, then Vekic - only twice.

One of the most important was the missed break point at a score of 3:5, which cost her the first game.

Subsequently, Donna lost three more games on her serve and failed to make a comeback.

Thanks to this, Sobolenko became only the sixth tennis player in the history of the Open Era, who did not suffer a single defeat in the first four quarterfinals at TBSh.

In addition to her, only Ann Jones, Billie Jean King, Chris Evert, Elena Dementieva and Naomi Osaka succeeded in this.

But to reach the Australian Open final for the first time, Sobolenko needs to take on a renaissance Magda Lynette.

As the 30-year-old Pole admitted after defeating Karolina Pliskova, two years ago she seriously thought about ending her career, but was able to overcome the consequences of a severe knee injury and give out the best tournament in her career.

Previously, she had never climbed past the third round at the Majors.

The key to success was a confident game on his pitch and the absence of unnecessary errors.

If the opponents were equal in the number of actively won goals (both had 18), then Pliskova had twice as many misses (36:16).

It is curious that even in such conditions she competed on equal terms with Lynette, but at the decisive moments she still failed - 3:6, 5:7.

The success of Andreeva, Korneeva and Ibragimova

If in the adult singles tournament the Russians have long sheathed their rackets, then in the juniors they continue to fight for the trophy.

Three domestic athletes made it to the quarterfinals at once, which has not happened for the last 20 years.

Seeded under the seventh and ninth numbers, respectively, Mirra Andreeva and Alina Korneeva dealt with the Bulgarian Rositsa Dencheva and the Dane Rebecca Mortensen, and Alevtina Ibragimova dealt with the 14th number of the competition Yaroslava Bartashevich from France in two games.

Now all three are waiting for much more serious tests.

It will be especially difficult for Korneeva, whose rival will be the sixth racket of the junior rating Teresa Valentova.

The winner of this confrontation will meet the strongest in a duel between Ibragimova and Sayaka Ishii.

Andreeva will face off against the 15th seeded Renata Yamricheva.

There are no Russians left in the men's grid.

Ruslan Tyukaev, who made it to the final tournament through qualification, fought for a ticket to the 1/4 finals, but he could not cope with the Pole Tomasz Berketa.

Failure befell the last representative of Russia in the adult doubles championship.

Anna Kalinskaya, along with Caroline Doulhide, lost to Japan's Suko Aoyama and Ena Shibahara.