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Fifth seed seeks second quarter-final at Melbourne Park
Andrey Rublev unleashed a torrent of hard-hitting winners against Briton Daniel Evans Saturday to muscle his way into the fourth round of the Australian Open. The fifth seed clocked triple the number of winners (60-20) than his opponent en route to a dominant 6-4, 6-2, 6-3 win.

Evans, a gritty opponent who can get under the skin of even the most unflappable players, had proven a difficult challenge for the combustible Rublev in six prior meetings, which the players had evenly split.

But on Thursday Rublev mixed devastating first-strike tennis with one of his stronger mental performances as he denied Evans a path into the match. Hitting a Serve+1 forehand 90% of the time, Rublev dominated points of 0-4 shots, winning 66 to Evans' 44.

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Not even an act of kindness from Evans could soften up the 25-year-old, who recently passed $15m in career earnings. Early in the match when Evans heard Rublev call for a banana, he tossed one to his opponent.

"I didn't ask him for it, but I asked a ball boy. He had two so he threw one to me and I caught it. It helped with some energy," Rublev said with a smile.


Having already moved to No. 5 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings to tie his career-high mark, Rublev will next face the winner of ninth seed Holger Rune and Frenchman Ugo Humbert as he shrugs off what had been a slow start to the year.

After two opening-round defeats to Roberto Bautista Agut and Thanasi Kokkinakis at the back-to-back Adelaide 250 tournaments in the first two weeks of the season, Rublev said that he was in need of a boost.

"At the beginning of the season I lost a bit of confidence with those losses, but now I am playing good tennis," he said. "After the first set I was feeling really confident and I knew I could play better, faster and that he was not comfortable with that, so I tried to play even more aggressive."

Rublev, who has never reached the semi-finals of a major, is now one win away from his seventh major quarter-final, and second in three years Down Under.

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Fifth seed advances to seventh Grand Slam quarter-final
The first Top 10 matchup of the 2023 Australian Open exceeded its blockbuster billing as Andrey Rublev edged Holger Rune 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6(11-9) on Monday in Rod Laver Arena.

In a scarcely believable fifth set, Rublev fought back from 2-5, saved two match points on serve at 5-6, then found himself in a 0/5 hole in the decisive tie-break. On his third match point, he clinched victory in the cruelest of ways from the Dane's perspective, when a net cord dribbled over the net.

"I never in my life was able to win matches like this," Rublev said post-match. "This is the first ever time that I won something like this, especially in a very special tournament, the Australian Open, to be in the quarter-finals. So it’s something I will remember for sure all my life. I have no words, I am shaking and happy.”

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Over the course of three hours, 37 minutes, the twists and turns started early and began to build towards the climax early in the fourth set. Rune was struggling physically as he saved two break points in its first game, but after a visit from the trainer, he managed to find a second wind and steal the set — but only after failing to serve it out at 5-3.

The Dane was at his best early in set five, combining big hitting with athletic defending, ultimately converting on his fourth break chance of the set to lead 3-1. But once again, he could not serve out the set — and this time, what would have been the match — as Rublev won 12 of 13 points to roar back from 2-5.

It was far from the last time the fifth seed would have his back to the wall, but he answered the call again to book his place in the Melbourne quarter-finals, where he will play Novak Djokovic or Alex de Minaur.

More to follow...