(Melbourne) Russian Andrey Rublev, 6e world, saved two match points before beating the Dane Holger Rune (10e) 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (11/9) with the help of the net, 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.

“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 tiebreaker… I didn’t the words, I still tremble, ”he listed.

PHOTO ASANKA BRENDON RATNAYAKE, ASSOCIATED PRESS

Holger Rune and Andrey Rublev

Rublev has already played the quarters at the Australian Open (2020), Roland-Garros (2020, 2022) and the United States 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 (5e).

Leading race

Against Rune, Rublev raced in the lead for four rounds, 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, came back.

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 in turn and rebounded at 5-5.

While serving to take the game to a super tiebreaker, 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.