Russian Andrey Rublev, 6th in the world, saved two match points before beating Dane Holger Rune (10th) 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (11/9) with the help from the net on Monday in the round of 16 of the Australian Open.
"It wasn't even a roller coaster, it was like putting a gun to your head... The roller coaster, next to it, is nothing," commented Rublev, exhausted.
After a burst of energy lasting more than three and a half hours, the final ball hit by the 25-year-old Russian caught the net to fall just on the other side, completely out of reach of Rune who was at the bottom of the short.
"I didn't think I could win a match like that," he said.
And this is the first time that I go through something like this to reach quarter-finals“, he added.
Rublev comes a long way
"I was down 5-2 in the fifth set, at 6-5 I had two match points against me and I was down 7/3 in the super tie-break... I didn't no words, I'm still shaking", he listed. Rublev has already played quarterfinals at the Australian Open (2020), Roland-Garros (2020, 2022) and the US Open (2017 , 2020, 2022) without ever reaching the semis. To achieve this this year in Melbourne, it will be necessary to dismiss the Serbian Novak Djokovic (5th) or the Australian Alex De Minaur (24th).
Against Rune, Rublev raced in the lead for four sets but each time the 19-year-old Dane, who rose to the top flight last year by reaching the quarter-finals at Roland-Garros before winning the Masters 1000 de Paris by beating Djokovic in the final, returned.
And it was Rune who took the lead in the deciding set where he served first and then broke to lead 3-1.
He held his lead until serving for the match at 5-3, but Rublev broke and rebounded at 5-5.
While serving to take the game to a super tie-break, Rublev committed a backhand unforced error to give Rune two match points.
The latter failed to convert any and let himself embark on the ultimate decisive game on an ace from Rublev.
Again Rune escaped 5/0 but Rublev came back to 7/7 and moved past 8/7 on an ace.
In the process, he got two match points on an attack from Rune in the middle of the court which stopped in the net.
The first was saved from a big service winner from the Dane, but on his own service, Rublev harvested the second with a volley into the net (9/9).
And on his third match point at 10/9, the net gave him the match after 3:37 of arm wrestling.