Australian Open: Rublev saves match points to beat Rune in fifth set tiebreaker

After three hours and 36 minutes, fifth seed Andrey Rublev and ninth seed Holger Rune were deadlocked at 9-9 in the deciding set tiebreak of their fourth round clash at the Australian Open on Monday. Both players had earned and saved two match points each when they had to change ends at the Rod Laver Arena for one more time.

Two minutes later, on his third match point, Rublev hit a return that touched the net cord and fell over to his opponent’s side ending the contest in a cruel manner for the 19-year-old Dane, The win sends Rublev into the quarter-finals of the Australian Open for the second time in his career, with the final score being 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (9) in the Russian’s favour.

“Now I can go casino. If I put, for sure I going to win. the last point, I don’t know, was never happen to me in my life. Was the luckiest probably moment. Cannot be better moment than this, to have a match point to be in quarterfinal, 10-9 in tiebreak, to make a return at the net, then the ball pass over. It’s the luckiest probably moment of my life.”

The Russian beat Austrian wildcard Dominic Thiem (6-3, 6-4, 6-2), Finn Emil Ruusuvuori (6-2, 6-4, 6-7 (2), 6-3) and No 25 seed Daniel Evans (6-4, 6-2, 6-3) ahead of his victory.

Rublev, ranked No 6, is through to his seventh career Grand Slam quarter-final but still chasing his first Major semi-final appearance. He will face the winner of the evening match between Australian Alex De Minaur, the No 22 seed, and nine-time Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic, the No 4 seed, next.

Australian Open (Grand Slam), other fourth round results (Melbourne Park, hard, USD 24,297,942, most recent results first):

• Alex De Minaur vs. Novak Djokovic
• Roberto Bautista Agut vs. Tommy Paul
• Ben Shelton vs. J.J. Wolf
• Stefanos Tsitsipas (3) beat Jannik Sinner (15): 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 6-3
• Jiri Lehecka beat Felix Auger-Aliassime (6): 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (2), 7-6 (3)
• Karen Khachanov (18) beat Yoshihito Nishioka (31): 6-0, 6-0, 7-6 (4)
• Sebastian Korda (29) beat Hubert Hurkacz (10): 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, 1-6, 7-6 (7)

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