Former world second racket among juniors, winner of 17 ITF tournaments, Anastasia Pivovarova, in a conversation with socialbites.ca, analyzed the victory of 25-year-old Russian Anna Blinkova (57th in the WTA rankings) against the third racket. World Elena Rybakina from Kazakhstan.
Blinkova won in three sets with a score of 6:4, 4:6, 7:6 (22:20). The rivals played the longest tiebreaker in the history of the Grand Slam singles tournament.
“Our Anya created a sensation, it was a fascinating match,” Pivovarova said. – In each set, already early in the game, Anya took a break – she took Rybakina’s serve.
In the first set, Blinkova managed to maintain this rhythm and take the set, but unfortunately she faltered a bit in the second set, stopped serving well and missed the chance to win in two sets.
In the third, Anya again had plenty of opportunities to win early. It was clear that Rybakina did not play in her style, she was defensive and only occasionally entered the field and attacked.
But Blinkova missed her chance to win: She didn’t have enough confidence to end the match.
The fact that the opponents went to a decisive tiebreaker and played it for 30 minutes (finishing with a record score of 22:20) is simply amazing. I even forgot how many match points they played while I was watching.
“My nerves were very high, but I really wanted Anya to put an end to this match because this is definitely the best match of her career and it’s always a shame when a match like this doesn’t end in your favor.”
Previously Russia’s first racket flew out From the Australian Open.