After record tiebreaker, Anna Blinkova upsets Elena Rybakina

Her hand and legs were shaking, she had missed nine match points but also saved six, and Anna Blinkova had 41 points in a wild tiebreaker that was the longest ever in a Grand Slam event.

Elena Rybakina, last year's Australian Open finalist, was just as anxious on the other side of the net.

When Blinkova rushed to recover a backhand, only to keep the rally alive, and Rybakina's next backhand sailed wide, it ended a 6-4, 4-6 victory , 7-6 (20) in the second round on Thursday which she will never win. , never forget.

“It took courage,” Blinkova said. “It took a certain calmness for me to stay in the moment and play point for point no matter what.”

Rybakina, the 2022 Wimbledon champion who was runner-up in Melbourne last year behind Aryna Sabalenka, saved two match points earlier in a third set that contained six breaks of serve.

Blinkova served twice for the match but couldn't finish the victory, and a double fault in the 12th game sent her to a 10-point tiebreaker. Once there, 13 minutes after her first match points, Blinkova still had two points at 9-7, but again Rybakina saved them, and so on.

Blinkova, smiling, later described it as a “never-ending tiebreaker.” It lasted 32 minutes until a backhand error from Rybakina ended it.

In terms of points, at 42 points, this is the longest tiebreaker at a women's Grand Slam, surpassing the 38-point tiebreaker between Lesia Tsurenko and Ana Bogdan at Wimbledon last year. It was also the longest tiebreaker ever at the Australian Open in men's or women's singles.

“This day that I will remember for the rest of my life, on this field with this crowd, it is the best of my life so far,” Blinkova said, shortly after sharing a hug with Rybakina in front of the net as the crowd kicked off. include a standing ovation. “Thank you to the public for cheering me on. It gave me so much energy to fight until the end.

“It was super hard. I tried to stay focused on every point. I had so many match points and I tried to be aggressive in those moments, but my hand was shaking and so were my legs .”

Rybakina became the fifth seed to lose in the first two rounds. The five remaining women in the top 10 are the fewest in the third round of the Australian Open under the 128 main draw format (since 1988), according to ESPN Stats & Information.

The hard-hitting Rybakina started the match slowly as Blinkova, her former doubles partner, capitalized with an early break before closing out the first set.

Blinkova, 25, turned up the pressure and pounced on her opponent's serve again in the second set to take a 2-1 lead, but Rybakina responded with a break to level the set 4-4.

Rybakina stepped up a gear and tied at one set apiece before the players freely exchanged breaks in the deciding match to set up their epic tiebreaker.

“I’m really proud that I was able to fight until the end,” Rybakina said. “I mean, you can't always play perfect. And of course, I could have lost him even sooner.”

Blinkova matched her best Grand Slam performance and will face No. 26 Jasmine Paolini in the third round.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.