Melbourne [Australia], January 14 : The World No.5 Andrey Rublev started his Australian Open campaign on a winning note as he stormed in the second round with a five-set victory against Thiago Seyboth Wild.
Rublev overcame a significant scare to defeat the Brazilian 7-5, 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 7-6(10-6) and advance to the second round in Melbourne for the eighth time in eight outings.
The World No.5 missed to convert four match chances on Seyboth Wild's serve at 5-6 in the fifth set, three of which came from 0-40. However, he restored his composure in the deciding tie-break, coming back from 2/5 to win on his fifth match point after three hours and 43 minutes.
The Russian dropped to the floor following his win over Seyboth Wild.
"I started to have this feeling for sure it's going to happen to me. 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," said Rublev as quoted by ATP.
Rublev revealed that he sought guidance from Medvedev prior to 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. 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 that kind of thing," Rublev said.
Rublev struggled to get his strong groundstrokes past the World No. 78, who covered the court with impressive mobility. The 26-year-old became increasingly irritated by his opponent's resistance, with the Brazilian timing the ball perfectly to strike 68 wins.
World No. 12. Taylor Fritz, a high-seeded player, defeated Argentine left-hander Facundo Diaz Acosta 4-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 to get to the second round.
Fritz was treated early in the match after injuring his left ankle. He also failed to penetrate on serve, as Diaz Acosta took a deep-court returning posture, winning only 66 percent of first-serve games in the encounter.
However, the American used his expertise well into the fifth set, breaking to love in the penultimate game to improve his five-set record to 9-11.
"It was a really crazy match, I wasn't fully ready for that. I'm happy now they put me on a Sunday start because I will need two days off now to rest after a physical match," 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 of his ankle injury.
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