MELBOURNE: Fifth seed Andrey Rublev tamed a battling Alex de Minaur in five gruelling sets to shatter home hopes and make his second successive Australian Open quarter-final on Sunday.
The Russian wore down the 10th-seeded Australian 6-4, 6-7 (5/7), 6-7 (4/7), 6-3, 6-0 over a draining four hours and 14 minutes on Rod Laver Arena.
It brought up his 300th Tour-level win and thrust him into a difficult clash with in-form Italian fourth seed Jannik Sinner for a place in the semi-finals.
“An amazing match from Alex,” said Rublev, who has made nine previous Slam quarter-finals but never gone further.
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“When I was down two sets to one, I said, ‘you might die today but you will do everything’. And then I started to play better and better and found more energy and I was able to win.”
Rublev was the sharper of the two in the opening set, achieving the crucial break in game four.
A 73-minute second set proved much tighter and they went toe-to-toe into a tense tie-break, where the roaring crowd got De Minaur over the line.
The players exchanged breaks in set three before that too went to a tie-break, when De Minaur was again lifted by his fans.
They exchanged early breaks in the fourth set but this time Rublev won the mental battle.
As the Australian began tiring, Rublev put his foot to the floor in the fifth set.
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