Elena Rybakina Eliminated From Australian Open by Anna Blinkova After Record-Setting Tiebreaker

Elena Rybakina, the runner-up at last year’s Australian Open, crashed out of this year’s tournament in the second round after a marathon match. 

Anna Blinkova won the match 6–4, 4–6, 7–6 (20) after a 42-point tiebreaker that was the longest in Grand Slam history. Blinkova survived six match points in the final set to advance past the second round at a major for just the fourth time in her career. 

“I had so many match points,” Blinkova said on the court after the match. "I tried to be aggressive in these moments, but my hands were shaking. My legs, too."

The previous record for longest tiebreaker at a Grand Slam tournament was 38 points, shared by Lesia Tsurenko and Ana Bogdan at Wimbledon last year and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Andy Roddick at the 2007 Australian Open. 

Rybankina, who was the tournament’s No. 3 seed, is one of several top-10 women’s seeds to bow out of the competition in the first two rounds. Ons Jabeur, Jessica Pegula, Maria Sakkari and Marketa Vondrousova were all upset.