Emil Ruusuvuori came close to surprising Russian star Daniil Medvedev in a four and a half hour match at the Australian Open.
A tennis player Emil Ruusuvuori was close to the biggest win of his career in the 2nd round of the Australian Open. The Finn who played great was a superstar Danii Medvedev already 2–0 in the set.
However, the Russian player finally got even and won the match in five sets with the scores 3–6, 6–7, 6–4, 7–6, 6–0.
Medvedev is third in the world rankings. Rusuvuori is in 53rd place, respectively.
In Australia, Medvedev has been in the final in 2021. In the same year, he won the Grand Slam championship in the United States.
– Excellent first couple of sets. I was able to implement the game plan brilliantly and Daniil had to change his tactics. However, he was ultimately better in the early morning corner, a disappointed Ruusuvuori stated in an interview after the match.
Rusuvuori has never reached the third round at the Grand Slam level. For Ruusuvuori, the match was the longest of his career, it lasted almost four and a half hours.
This is how the match went
Ruusuvuori had a great start to the match, broke Medvedev’s pass once and suddenly took a 3–0 lead. In a 5–3 situation, Ruusuvuori immediately used their first break opportunity and won the opening set with a score of 6–3.
The Finn’s strong streak continued right at the beginning of the next set with a break and a hold. However, Medvedev got into the game better in this set and broke Ruusuvuori’s pass twice.
The Russian was 5–3, in the lead, until it was the Finn’s turn to break his opponent’s serve. The set finally progressed to a tiebreak, where the Finn was very strong (7–1) and took the second set to his name.
At the beginning of the third set, Medvedev broke the pass once and led 4–1 at his best. Rusuvuori was able to break, but the Russian eventually took the set 6–4.
In the fourth set, Ruusuvuori was at a loss against Medvedev, but was broken by a pass from the Russian in a 4–3 situation. After that, Ruusuvuori held its serve and took a 5–4 and then a 6–5 lead.
The fourth set finally progressed to a tiebreak, where this time Medvedev was clearly better with figures of 7–1.
In the decisive fifth set, Medvedev came with a sure grip and broke his opponent’s pass. The Finn, on the other hand, was completely out of breath.
Medvedev bluntly took the fifth set 6–0 and the entire match 3–2.
– He doesn’t give the balls away easily. In the third and fourth he got the breaks too easily. It was difficult towards the end. Everything possible had been given from this body, what was left, Ruusuvuori stated.
Medvedev snarled
Medvedev was particularly frustrated in the fourth set and went around in circles. Among other things, he hit his bat several times.
Earlier this month, Ruusuvuori advanced to the final match of the ATP tournament for the second time in his career. In the tournament played in Hong Kong, however, the Finn lost the final To Andrei Rublev.
Updated 7:22 p.m.: Added story with Ruusuvuori’s comments.