The Russian Daniil Medvedev, third seed, he needed five sets, four hours and 21 minutes of hard fighting to survive the push and inspiration of the Finn Emil Ruusuvuori, physically exhausted in the final stretch, and advance to the third round of the Australian Open, 3-6, 6-7(1), 6-4, 7-6(1) and 6-0.
The lights at Rod Laver Arena did not go out until late in the morning in Melbourne. The face to face between the Muscovite and the tennis player from Helsinki, the third individual between the two, did not have a winner until almost four in the morning, local time.
It was a dramatic duel that required an epic comeback by the Russian to impose his status as third racket in the world and maintain his expectations in the first major of the course. I did not expect a situation like this Medvedev who had never lost a round with the Finn. Neither in Kazakhstan, in 2022, nor in Rome, on clay, last year.
The curious thing is that the Russian already adds three comebacks from 0-2: the previous ones, Australia 2022 vs Canadian Felix Auger Aliassime and Wimbledon 2021, against Marin Cilic.
Now, Medvedev meets the same Canadian in the next section of the tournament in which he was a finalist twice (2021 and 2022), surpassed by Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal.
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