Daniil Medvedev of Russia gestures as he’s interviewed after defeating Emil Ruusuvuori of Finland of their second round match on the Australian Open tennis championships at Melbourne Park, Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
MELBOURNE, Australia — If he wasn’t on the court competing, Daniil Medvedev doubted anything would have kept him at Rod Laver Arena until almost 4 within the morning.
The third-seeded Medvedev lost the primary two sets of his second-round Australian Open match against No. 53-ranked Emil Ruusuvuori before coming back to win 3-6, 6-7 (1), 6-4, 7-6 (1), 6-0 in 4 hours, 23 minutes in the newest finish of the week.
They’d walked onto Rod Laver Arena to start out hitting at 11:07 p.m. Thursday after women’s No. 3 Elena Rybakina lost the longest tiebreaker ever in a women’s Grand Slam event, 22-20 to Anna Blinkova.
The match ended at 3:39 a.m. Friday, and Medvedev was still there signing autographs because the clock ticked closer to 4.
The long tiebreaker and the uncertainty over the starting time, he said, meant his eating and warming up routines were thrown out of kilter.
“Once I went on court I used to be a bit exhausted already,” Medvedev, a two-time Australian Open finalist, explained to the scattering of fans still in the world well after the last trams had finished running for Day 5.
It won’t go down as a classic, but still had loads of drama.
Medvedev needed a medical timeout for blisters on his right foot after the second set, and he spiked his racket into the court after missing a likelihood to interrupt Ruusuvuori’s serve late within the fourth.
Daniil Medvedev of Russia takes his shoe off to have a blister attended to during his second round match against Emil Ruusuvuori of Finland on the Australian Open tennis championships at Melbourne Park, Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
Then he had trouble tying the laces of his right shoe right before the deciding fifth set.
Taking a look at the clock, he was frank with the individuals who’d stayed there until a few hours before the sun was as a result of rise.
“Truthfully guys, I might not be here,” Medvedev said in an on-court interview. “Thanks for staying. If I can be a tennis fan and I might come, at 1 a.m. I can be like ‘OK, let’s go home. We’re going to catch the tip of the match on the TV.’”
It was the newest finish up to now this yr, but not near the tournament record. Andy Murray finished off Thanasi Kokkinakis just after 4 a.m. last yr in a second-round match that lasted 5 hours, 45 minutes.
And that was only ok for second place on the all-time list. The most recent-finishing match in Grand Slam history ended with Lleyton Hewitt beating Marcos Baghdatis at 4:34 a.m. in 2008.
After player complaints last yr, Australian Open organizers decided to increase the tournament by adding a fifteenth day and starting on a Sunday for the primary time.
The primary round was split over three days, and no matches went past 2 a.m.
But the primary day of the second round was entirely different story, with two early men’s matches going to a decisive tiebreaker after five sets and top-ranked Iga Swiatek’s opener against Danielle Collins going for nearly 3 1/4 hours.
And so Day 5 of the Australian Open finished on a Friday, anyway.
Medvedev said he’d must warm down, get some physiotherapy and check out to get to sleep by 6:30 a.m. and get up a while after midday to start out preparing for his third-round match against Felix Auger-Aliassime.
Ruusuvurori, a 24-year-old from Finland who was aiming to achieve the third round for the primary time at a serious, began well.
He broke the 2021 U.S. Open champion’s serve within the second game and took the primary set in 42 minutes. It took almost twice that long to take the second set in a tiebreaker for a 2-0 lead.
After a medical timeout, Medvedev began his comeback. He broke for a 2-1 lead and, after an exchange of breaks, he took the third set in 49 minutes.
He also broke to open the fourth. But Ruusuvurori broke back, converting with a leaping overhead, to get back on serve and had Medvedev screaming toward his support team within the stands.
He held for a 5-4 lead with a few forehand passing shots, and Medvedev hurled his racket into the court before he walked to the chairs for the changeover. It earned him a warning from the chair umpire.
At deuce in the subsequent game, Ruusuvuori was two points from winning the match at 2:56 a.m.
But he stepped in to a service return and missed a forehand wide down the road, after which sent a forehand long.
In any case that, the tip got here relatively quickly.
Medvedev took a 4-0 lead within the tiebreaker, seizing momentum.
After an almost eight-minute break between the fourth and fifth sets, Medvedev’s experience kicked in and Ruusuvuori’s legs gave out.
The 30-minute deciding set was only prolonged by Ruusuvuori taking a medical timeout for treatment on his sore right shoulder.
“The one two matches I’ve come back from two sets to like down was on this court,” Medvedev said.
Going into the match he was 4-10 in five-setters, including a loss to Rafael Nadal within the 2022 final after he’d taken the primary two sets.
“This one,” he said, “goes to of course stay in my memory.”
