Medvedev wins Australian Open match in 3rd-latest Slam finish،
MELBOURNE, Australia – If he hadn't been on the court competing, Daniil Medvedev doubted anything would have kept him at Rod Laver Arena until almost 4 a.m.
Third-seeded Medvedev lost the first two sets of his Australian Open second-round match against 53rd-ranked Emil Ruusuvuori before coming back to win 3-6, 6-7 (1), 6-4, 7-6 (1), 6-0 in 4 hours and 23 minutes at the last end of the week.
They traveled to Rod Laver Arena to start hitting at 11:07 p.m. AEDT on Thursday after women's number 3 Elena Rybakina lost the longest ever tiebreaker in a women's Grand Slam event, 22 -20 against Anna Blinkova.
The match ended at 3:39 a.m. Friday, and Medvedev was still there signing autographs as the clock ticked toward 4 o'clock.
The long tiebreaker and uncertainty over the start time, he said, meant his fueling and warm-up routines were unbalanced.
“When I entered the court, I was already a little exhausted,” Medvedev, a two-time Australian Open finalist, told fans still scattered around the arena long after the last trams had finished their journey to the fifth day.
This won't be considered a classic, but it still had plenty of drama.
Medvedev needed a medical timeout due to blisters on his right foot after the second set, and he sent his racket onto the court after missing a chance to break Ruusuvuori's serve late in the fourth.
Then he struggled to tie the laces of his right shoe before the deciding fifth set.
Looking at the clock, he was frank with the people who had been there until a few hours before sunrise.
“Honestly guys, I wouldn’t be there,” Medvedev said in an on-field interview. “Thank you for staying. If I was a tennis fan and I came, at 1 a.m. I'd be like, 'OK, let's go home. We'll watch the end of the match on TV.' “
This was the last result of this year, but it is not close to the tournament record. Andy Murray defeated Thanasi Kokkinakis at 4:05 last year in a second-round match that lasted 5 hours and 45 minutes.
And that was just good enough for second place on the all-time list. The last match in Grand Slam history ended with Lleyton Hewitt's victory over Marcos Baghdatis at 4:34 a.m. at the 2008 Australian Open.
After complaints from players last year, Australian Open organizers decided to extend the tournament by adding a 15th day and starting on a Sunday for the first time. The first round took place over three days and no match lasted past 2 a.m.
But the first day of the second round was a different story, with two men's first matches ending in a decisive tiebreaker after five sets and the first match of first Iga Swiatek against Danielle Collins lasting almost 3 hours and a quarter.
So the fifth day of the Australian Open ended on a Friday, anyway.
Medvedev said he would have to warm up, undergo physiotherapy and try to fall asleep at 6:30 a.m. and wake up shortly after noon to start preparing for his third-round match against Félix Auger-Aliassime.
Ruusuvurori, a 24-year-old Finn who was aiming for the third round at a major tournament for the first time, started well.
He broke the 2021 US Open champion's serve in the second match and won the first set in 42 minutes. It took almost twice as long to win the second set in a tiebreaker and take a 2-0 lead.
“If I was a tennis fan and I came, at 1 a.m., I'd be like, 'OK, let's go home. We'll watch the end of the match on TV.'”
Daniil Medvedev, on his late second round match at the Australian Open
After a medical timeout, Medvedev began his return. He broke to take a 2-1 lead and, after an exchange of breaks, won the third set in 49 minutes.
He also broke to open the fourth. But Ruusuvurori broke back, converting with a leap above, to return to serve, and Medvedev shouted to his support team in the stands.
Ruusuvurori maintained a 5-4 lead with a few forehands, and Medvedev threw his racket across the court before heading to the chairs for the changeover. This earned him a warning from the chair umpire.
Tied in the next game, Ruusuvuori was two points from victory at 2:56 a.m. But he launched into a return of serve and missed a forehand wide down the line, then sent a forehand long.
After all that, the end came relatively quickly.
Medvedev took a 4-0 lead in the tiebreaker, seizing momentum.
After a break of almost eight minutes between the fourth and fifth sets, Medvedev's experience showed and Ruusuvuori's legs gave way.
The 30-minute deciding set was only extended by Ruusuvuori taking a medical timeout to treat his sore right shoulder.
“The only two matches I enjoyed after two sets were on this court,” Medvedev said.
Entering the match, he was 4-10 in five sets, including a loss to Rafael Nadal in the 2022 final after winning the first two sets.
“This one,” he said, “is definitely going to stay in my memory.”
