Rublev, Fritz survive five-set scares at Australian Open

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From two sets up and in control, Andrey Rublev looked set for a comfortable afternoon on Sunday at the Australian Open. Fast forward two hours and the relief on the face of the fifth seed reflected the change in mood after he was pushed to five sets against Thiago Seyboth Wild.

In a thrilling clash in Melbourne, Rublev survived a major scare to overcome the Brazilian 7-5, 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 7-6(10-6) and reach the second round in Melbourne for the seventh time in eight appearances.

In the pair’s first Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting, Rublev failed to convert four match points on Seyboth Wild’s serve at 5-6 in the fifth set, including three from 0/40. However, he regained his composure in the decisive tie-break, rallying from 2/5 to eventually triumph on his fifth match point after three hours and 43 minutes.

Rublev collapsed to the floor after his win against Seyboth Wild, who upset Daniil Medvedev at Roland Garros last year.

"I started to have this feeling for sure it's going to happen to me," said Rublev, who admitted he was thinking about good friend Medvedev's defeat to the Brazilian. "Almost all the fifth set, every game at least one or two times I was thinking about what happened to Daniil because the fifth set I was inside completely panicking. But still I was serving really well on the fifth set. The serve helped me a lot because all the fifth set I think he didn't have any chances. All the games were 40/15 or 40/0. The only thing that helped me a lot."

Rublev admitted he asked Medvedev for advice before the match.

"I asked him how Thiago is playing because I never saw. I only saw a bit in Roland Garros, but there Thiago played also unreal," Rublev said. "He was hitting full with the forehand. So I knew he had really, really great forehand, but the rest of the things I didn't really know, so I asked Daniil. And he said the same thing, that he has a really good forehand. The forehand is better than backhand, but still with the backhand he likes to go sometimes full down the line and those kind of things."

Rublev is now 5-0 in 2024 after winning the title at the ATP 250 event in Hong Kong earlier this month. The World No. 5, who struck 88 winners against the World No. 78, will aim to make it six wins from six when he next takes on Japan’s Taro Daniel or American Christopher Eubanks.

Rublev just gave us the biggest VAMOOOOOOOS 🔥

This is what relief looks like:@AustralianOpen | #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/RocFDAWL2e

— ATP Tour (@atptour) January 14, 2024

In a heavy-hitting clash, Rublev struggled to strike his powerful groundstrokes through the World No. 78, who showed great agility to cover the court. The 26-year-old also grew increasingly frustrated at his opponents resistance, with the Brazilian timing the ball cleanly to hit 68 winners.

The World No. 5 would not be denied, though, and showed his big-match experience in the closing stages, cutting out errors from the baseline and closing the net effectively to stay alive. Rublev is a two-time quarter-finalist at the Australian Open.

World No. 12 Taylor Fritz was another high-seeded player who escaped a five-set scare, rallying from behind to defeat unheralded Argentine left-hander Facundo Diaz Acosta 4-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 to reach the second round.

Fritz received treatment early in the match after rolling his left ankle. He also struggled to penetrate on serve as Diaz Acosta adopted a deep-court returning stance, winning just 66 per cent of first-serve points for the match.

But the American used his experience deep in the fifth set, breaking to love in the final game to improve his career five-set record to 9-11.

“It was a really crazy match, I wasn’t fully ready for that,” Fritz said. “I’m happy now they put me on a Sunday start because I will need two days off now to rest after a really, really physical match.”

Addressing his ankle injury, Fritz said, “It was one of those when I rolled it, I heard it pop and it hurt pretty bad at first. Sometimes you just need a minute but this one I definitely needed to get it taped up.”

Fritz said that despite being unexpectedly pushed by a player without a Grand Slam match win to his name, he was happy with his performance after a sluggish first set.

“The rest of the match I raised my level. And I know people are going to -- that didn't watch the match are going to look at the score and think that I'm maybe out of form or not playing great, but there needs to be some respect given to this guy. He's really good, honestly. So I told him at net. I shook his hand, and I said, You're really F'ing good.

“He was returning serves that I feel like nobody returns unless they full guess on it. He wasn't even picking sides. I'm hitting bombs and spots on the lines, and he is putting the returns on the baseline. Honestly, I've never seen anything like that.”

“If I played average level today, I wouldn't have won the match.”

Fritz’s fellow American Frances Tiafoe also had to battle for his spot in the second round. The 17th seed overcame Borna Coric 6-3, 7-6(7), 2-6, 6-3 after both players had fired 44 winners in their second Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting.

Tiafoe’s reward for holding off the World No. 39 Coric is a second-round clash with Tomas Machac. The Czech earlier defeated lucky loser Shintaro Mochizuki 7-5, 6-1, 7-5.