Thrillers for the night: Medvedev bounced back from 0:2 and put the finishing touches on Ruusuvuori, and Blinkova sensationally knocked Rybakina out of the Australian Open

Sensation from Blinkova and defeat by Kasatkina

Another day of play made it clear that in women's tennis, pre-match layouts often have no meaning.

And this was confirmed by the meetings with the participation of Russians, where in all three cases the nominal underdogs were stronger.

The creator of the main sensation was Anna Blinkova, who in a fantastically intense confrontation defeated last year's Australian Open finalist Elena Rybakina.

During her career, the 25-year-old Russian woman only reached the third round at Grand Slam tournaments three times, so few people bet on her in a duel with the third racket of the world.

The fact that the tennis players’ paths had already crossed before did not add optimism to domestic fans, and then it was Anna who was stronger.

After all, this happened more than six years ago, and since that moment Rybakina has made tremendous progress and broke into the elite of world sports, while Blinkova could boast of only one victory at WTA competitions.

In October 2022, she barely managed to beat Yasmine Paolini in the final of the championship in Cluj.

Therefore, Blinkova’s success in the first game seemed simply a lucky coincidence.

Yes, she played it exemplarily and converted the only break point, but already in the second she lost serve twice and allowed Rybakina to level the situation.

At this moment, there was a feeling that the more titled representative of Kazakhstan would put the squeeze on her opponent and calmly proceed to the next round, but that was not the case.

The final segment turned into an uncompromising battle, during which Rybakina three times found herself in the role of catching up.

But each time she miraculously came back, and with the score 5:6 she even came away with two match points.

It seemed that in the tiebreaker she would definitely put the squeeze on Blinkova, who was demoralized by this circumstance, but she did not even think of giving up.

Yes, she didn’t start the shortened game in the best way, but then she came to her senses and had two excellent opportunities to end the duel in her favor.

But Elena first took a point on her own serve, and then on someone else’s.

Subsequently, something incredible happened in Rod Laver Arena.

First one and then the other took the initiative, but neither of them was able to put an end to it.

In total, the longest tiebreaker in Grand Slam history lasted 31 minutes.

Rybakina had six match points, and Blinkova had all eight and still took advantage of one of them.

At the same time, the key was a protracted rally with the score 17:18, when Anna miraculously managed to defend herself and then made Elena make a mistake at the net.

She was no longer able to recover from this shock - 4:6, 6:4, 6:7 (20:22).

As Rybakina later admitted, there have been emotional matches in her career, but never such intense tiebreakers.

And Blinkova was at her best that evening and fought for every point.

In turn, Anna called this the best day of her life, and before leaving the court she wrote “Never give up” on the camera.

Now she can only gain strength in anticipation of her rematch with Paolini.

Like Blinkova, world number 75 Anna Kalinskaya also made it to the third round of the Australian Open for the first time.

Arantxa Rus was ranked 45th in the WTA rankings and was considered the favorite in this confrontation, but failed to confirm her status.

At the same time, she showed decent resistance only in the second game, where she narrowly fell short of the tiebreaker.

But it is very difficult to fight on equal terms with an opponent who hits the first ball in 82% of cases - 6:1, 7:5.

For a ticket to the fourth round, Kalinskaya could have fought with Daria Kasatkina, but she did not support the initiative of her compatriots and lost to Sloane Stephens.

Throughout her career, the country's first racket experienced difficulties with the American, who had previously been beaten in three out of four meetings.

But that was long before she noticeably slowed down and fell far beyond the top ten of the rating.

The match turned out to be extremely equal and tense.

And in the first set, Kasatkina attacked so well that even 17 unforced errors did not prevent her from taking the lead.

But in the subsequent ones, Stevens adjusted herself and no longer allowed her opponent to complete attacks so often, and in the third she completely covered up her opponent.

In total, Daria scored only two actively won goals, while there were as many as 14 misses. However, even despite this, she retained her chances of winning until the last, even if she did not succeed - 6:4, 3:6, 3:6.

Medvedev's phenomenal comeback

Thanks to Blinkova, closer to midnight, Daniil Medvedev entered the court, whose performance at the start of the Australian Open left mixed feelings.

On the one hand, he completed his task and beat the unyielding Terence Atman, on the other hand, he “woke up” for too long and really got involved only in the second game.

But if the Frenchman, who made it to the Australian Open through qualification, was unable to take full advantage of the gifts from the Russian, and then completely withdrew due to health problems, then Emil Ruusuvuori could well punish him for his lack of composure.

He approached the first Grand Slam tournament of the season in excellent shape, which was confirmed by reaching the final of the championship in Hong Kong.

True, this time Medvedev decided to raise the stakes and immediately failed the first two games.

In both, he immediately capitulated on his serve, after which he frantically tried to catch up, simultaneously managing to react very violently to failures.

And in the second he even succeeded.

Moreover, he took two games at the reception and had three set points, but did not convert any of them.

Perhaps the reason for the sudden decline was foot problems, which forced Daniil to call a doctor to the court.

But the pause did him no good.

In the tiebreaker, the Russian looked helpless and lost five points in a row, finishing only one rally in his favor.

Medvedev needed a reboot, which he decided to do in the tribune room.

And I came out to the third game in a completely different state.

If in the previous one he made 21 unforced errors, then in this one he limited himself to only 13.

And only once did he give up, allowing Ruusuvuori to succeed in the reception and reduce the gap to 2:4.

But he pulled himself together in time and did not allow the Finn to develop his success.

In the key seventh game, the Russian first prevented him from realizing a break point, and then ended it in his favor with a shortened one.

Even with the help of a cable, which made the blow unbreakable.

Emotionally after winning the third set, Medvedev started the fourth set well.

First, he took someone else's serve to zero, and then created a miracle on his own.

Daniil was trailing 0:40, but snatched five points in a row and confirmed the break.

But he continued to act too unstable and risky.

The abundance of shortened players forced Ruusuvuori to move around the court a lot and waste energy, but sometimes it backfired on the Russian himself.

Ruusuvuori had more than one opportunity to succeed at the reception, but the eighth game became fatal.

Before this, Medvedev managed to win back two more break points, but on the seventh attempt, Emil still leveled the situation.

And in the decisive episode, Daniel was let down by the same shortened one.

It was after this that the Finn rushed forward and still put the finishing touches on the Russian, and then came forward, which absolutely drove him crazy.

He threw his racket in anger, which caused a dissatisfied roar from fans who refused to leave Rod Laver Arena at three in the morning.

And also received a warning from the judge.

Perhaps Medvedev needed to get a little excited.

Yes, he couldn’t avoid a tiebreaker, but he returned the favor to Ruusuvuori, winning it 7:1.

And he forced his counterpart to leave the site.

Perhaps already at that moment he began to worry about problems with his shoulder, because of which he later even called a doctor.

Perhaps Emil was tired or his health problems really affected him, but he simply wasn’t strong enough for the final set.

Daniil won 24 points out of 32, took six games in a row and made an incredible comeback.

The duel lasted 4 hours 23 minutes, and the athletes left the court at about four o'clock in the morning in Melbourne.

Avanesyan’s strong-willed victory and Panova’s success

In turn, the domestic team was not without losses in the doubles tournament.

Thus, Irina Khromacheva, who competed together with Miriam Kolodziezhova, suffered a defeat.

In the first round, the Russian-Czech duo encountered the sixth seeds of the competition in the person of Desiree Krawczyk and Ena Shibahara, whom they were unable to provide worthy resistance to.

In the first game they grabbed only one game, and in the second they lost their own serve and found themselves in the role of catching up.

And no matter how hard they tried, they failed to make at least one break - 1:6, 4:6.

But two other Russians advanced to the next round, and both needed to play all three sets to do so.

And Elina Avanesyan again became one of the main characters.

The day before, she created a real sensation and knocked out eighth-seeded Marina Sakkari in singles, and this time, together with Irina Shimanovich, she made an impressive comeback in doubles and left Danielle Collins and Alena Kichenok out of action.

The start of the meeting was extremely disappointing.

In the opening, Avanesyan and Shimanovich could do virtually nothing against their opponents and lost five games in a row, three of them on their own serve.

After this, many could have given up, but the athletes did not give up and first avoided the “steering wheel” in the first set, and then took the second.

Yes, there was a break again, but at key moments the Russian and Belarusian were, at least a little, better.

Unlike their counterparts, Collins and Kichenok were unable to remain calm and literally fell apart in the third segment.

They immediately gave up the serve and never returned from 0:3.

Avanesyan and Shimanovich confidently brought the matter to victory and advanced to the second round - 2:6, 6:4, 6:1.

Alexandra Panova and Kristina Buksha will be waiting for them there, who also had to work hard to reach the next round.

True, their meeting developed according to a slightly different scenario.

The Russian and the Spaniard quite easily took a set from the 12th seeds Marie Bouzkova and Sara Sorribes-Tormo, but it was not possible to play the entire match at this level.

If in the opening game they scored 16 actively won goals, then in the second their number was reduced to ten, which the opponents did not fail to take advantage of.

The decisive period turned out to be extremely tense, and the denouement came in the sixth and seventh games.

While Panova and Buksha managed to overcome two break points and maintain serve, Bouzkova and Sorribes-Tormo faltered.

And they failed to restore parity - 2:6, 6:2, 4:6.