Anna Blinkova wows critics with incredible win in epic tiebreak

Anna Blinkova secured an incredible triumph by eliminating third seed Elena Rybakina after the longest match tie-break in Grand Slam history

Thanks to that decisive tie-break, which lasted more than thirty minutes, Blinkova scored the biggest win of her career,taking the exchange 22-20in the end.

On her tenth match point, the Russian world No 57 ultimately prevailed in the match; nevertheless, Rybakina, the former Wimbledon champion, had also had several chances to take control of the match.

“It was incredible, it was bonkers, it was everything,” former British No 1 Laura Robson said.

“The amount of stress I felt in the last half an hour in that whole tie-break.
“At that point you just wanted her to get over the line. Having so many chances after being so resilient, so brave with her tennis.

“What it meant to her, wow. It almost gives me chills to have that moment to look back on whenever she’s done and dusted. Hopefully in many, many years. I can’t believe the match I’ve just seen.”

Blinkova shrugged off the suggestion that she was calm under pressure, saying that her nerves were jangling throughout.

“I only looked [as cool as a cucumber]. It took me a lot of work. I work [on my composure] every day, managing the emotions,” she told Eurosport.

“I had a lot of emotions. I was leading in the second set, third set, and I was losing all these opportunities, but I was telling myself that I still want to win, I still can win.

“I forgot about the opportunities I missed and I focused on the new opportunities I had to still win the match.”

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Rybakina finished second in the Australian Open last year and was considered a strong favourite to win the crown this term after picking up a title in Brisbane.

The two hour and forty-six minute contest, according to Tim Henman, “had everything,” with the closing stages seeing a significant improvement in quality according to the former top Brit.

He felt that the tense and enthralling nature of the match more than made up for the high error-rate from the players.

“There were some great winners and rallies, but then the pressure was getting to both players’ forehands,” he told Eurosport.

“A lot of unforced errors, but both players competed so hard. They were chasing down, making their opponent play that one extra shot. It was absolutely epic.”

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