Russian tennis player Anna Blinkova has defeated world number 3 and former Australian Open finalist Elena Rybakina in what was the longest singles tiebreaker in women’s grand slam history.
Tied 6-6 in the third set of the Round 2 Australian Open match, the former doubles partners played for more than 30 minutes in a gruelling point-for-point showdown at Rod Laver Arena on Thursday night.
By the 42nd point of the tiebreaker, and Blinkova’s 10th match point, the world number 57 clinched the win, rounding out the match 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (20).
Blinkova came into the tournament unseeded, as Kazakhstan’s Rybakina eyed off a back-to-back appearance at the Australian Open women’s singles final. The history-making match was a huge upset in the women’s tournament, throwing the competition wide open.
The 25-year-old was brought to her knees as the 30-minute record-breaking tiebreaker came to a close.
“This day I’ll remember for the rest of my life, on this court with this crowd, it’s the best of my life so far,” Blinkova said in the on-court interview following the match.
“Thank you to the crowd for encouraging me, it gave me so much energy to fight until the end. It was super tough, I tried to stay focused on every point.
“I had so many match points and tried to be aggressive at these moments but my hand was shaking, and my legs too.”
The 42-point tiebreaker in the last set broke the record for the longest grand slam tiebreaker in the women’s game. It beat the previous record of 38 points last year at Wimbledon and at the 2007 Australian Open.
Blinkova has never defeated a player as highly ranked as Rybakina, who is ranked number 3 in the world and the third seed of the tournament. Rybakina was the runner-up in the Australian Open last year and won the Wimbledon Grand Slam in 2022.
On her way out of the Rod Laver Arena stadium, Blinkova wrote on the television camera lens: “NEVER GIVE UP.”
Upsets in women’s comp
This year’s Australian Open tournament for the women’s competition has been riddled with upsets. There are 32 players left in the competition as Round 3 commences today, and just 12 of those players are seeded. That means 18 unseeded players are left in the running for the grand slam title.
Unseeded French player Clara Burel defeated fifth seed Jessica Pegula from the US in straight sets. It was Pegula’s earliest Grand Slam exit since Wimbledon 2021, when she lost in the second round.
Poland’s Iga Switek, who is first seed in the competition, narrowly avoided an early exit in her second-round match against USA’s Danielle Collins. She came back from 4-1 down in the third set.
Naomi Osaka was defeated in the first round of the tournament earlier this week. It was her first grand slam in fifteen months after giving birth to her daughter just six months ago.
“I have to tell myself: ‘Hey, six months ago you were pregnant’,” Osaka said following the defeat.
While she was disappointed in her loss, Osaka said she shouldn’t expect herself to return to the game and “immediately start winning matches”.
“I kind of always expect myself to stand a chance anyway,” she said, “so I guess just being nice to myself is like a thing that I learned in my time away.”