Andrey Rublev reached the second round of the Australian Open

Andrei Rublev’s first match at the Australian Open, which started in Melbourne, became a serious test of his strength. Brazilian Thiago Seiboth Wild, who knocked Daniil Medvedev out of the net at the start of last year’s Roland Garros, put up stubborn resistance to another Russian tennis player, winning back a two-set deficit from Rublev and losing his advantage in the tiebreaker of the fifth game. Last year’s champion of the junior tournament, 16-year-old Russian Alina Korneeva, made her successful debut in the women’s bracket and, having qualified, defeated the experienced Spaniard Sara Sorribes Tormo.

Having sensationally defeated Daniil Medvedev in the first round of last year’s Roland Garros, the Brazilian Thiago Zeyboth Wild went into the shadows, where, in fact, he has spent most of his career. Then in Paris, however, he completed one more round, and during the US Open he won two “challengers” in Italy, tournaments of a lower category compared to ATP competitions, but such results, of course, could not change his reputation as a classic middle peasant. But as soon as this 23-year-old tennis player faced an elite opponent from Russia at the start of the Grand Slam Championship, he suddenly changed. Exactly a week after winning the title at a tournament in Hong Kong, Andrei Rublev had to undergo a serious test of strength, and its outcome was not obvious until the very last moment.

Rublev’s problems began from the very first games: Zeyboth Wild won in the opening – 3:0. However, the first game ultimately remained with the Russian, and after he led 5:1 in the second set, it seemed that the situation was becoming irreversible. But this was a deceptive impression.

Feeling the courage and relying primarily on a sharp forehand, the Brazilian, having made a break in the third and fourth sets, caught up with Rublev.

The ending was completely unpredictable. Losing in the fifth game 5:6 and 0:40 on his serve, Zeyboth Wild won back three match points, then another, and brought the matter to a super tiebreak of up to ten points, which, according to the regulations, is played in the decisive games at the Australian Open. In the next few minutes, everything hung in the balance for Rublev. He was losing – 4:6, and here, of course, one could remember last year’s fourth round match against the Dane Holger Rune, in which the same tiebreaker was also played and the opponent of the current fifth racket of the world led with an even greater advantage – 5:0.

Rublev managed to shake the Brazilian’s confidence in his abilities by some miracle – more precisely, with the help of a dribbling shot, which Zeybot Wild, who rushed to the net, could not parry. As a result, the last six points in the match went to the Russian, who managed to avoid an embarrassing fiasco and won in five sets in 3 hours 42 minutes. His opponent in the second round will be determined on Monday in the match between last year’s Wimbledon quarterfinalist American Chris Eubanks and Japanese Taro Daniel.

Meanwhile, Italian Jannik Sinner, considered the favorite of the “Rublev” quarter of the bracket and who missed the first two weeks of the season, demonstrated optimal readiness for the tournament, defeating Dutchman Botik van de Zandshulp in three sets.

In general, the first day of the Australian Open was quite successful for Russian players, although there were some obvious setbacks. Having run into a very unpleasant opponent – the owner of two Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) titles, American Amanda Anisimova, who missed most of last year and is now only in the fifth hundred in the ranking, Lyudmila Samsonova, the first racket of Russia according to the results of the previous season, dropped out of the fight. The January Australian voyage turned out to be a failure for Samsonova. At tournaments in Brisbane, Adelaide and Melbourne, she lost all three matches, managing to take only one set in them.

But on Sunday, 16-year-old Alina Korneeva, the current champion of the junior Australian Open and Roland Garros, who was declared last year’s world champion according to the International Tennis Federation (ITF), distinguished herself. Having qualified, she showed attractive attacking tennis in a match against the experienced, viscous Spanish player Sara Sorribes Tormo and was able to win in three games. The young student of the Moscow Spartak tennis school, who prepared for this season mainly in Spain at the Rafael Nadal Academy, is no longer a debutant in WTA level competitions. Last fall she completed one round at a tournament in Hong Kong and is now in the middle of the second hundred in the adult world classification.

Evgeniy Fedyakov