​Olena Rybakina and Anna Blinkova produced the most dramatic finish to a match at the 2024 Australian Open, with last year’s finalist eliminated after the longest tie-break in the women’s Grand Slam draw (22-20).

Olena Rybakina, defeated by Anna Blinkova with a score of 22-20 on a tie-break

Blinkova (57 WTA) won the first set 6-4, but Rybakina (favourite 3) won by the same score in the second set.

The decisive set became such that it entered the history of women’s tennis. Blinkova was the first to prevail in the rematch (she led 3-1 and 4-2), but a series of five breaks followed, from which Rybakina emerged victorious (the Kazakh saved two match points at 5-6).

In the special tie-break, the Russian woman missed seven more match points (the first one was 10 points, but the difference should be two points), but Rybaka’s things were not better either, she wasted six opportunities to finish the match.

Finally, Anna Blinkova struck the decisive blow and won after two hours and 48 minutes of play with a score of 22-20.

In this way, Rybakina and Blinkova surpassed the record of Lesya Tsurenko and Ana Bohdan at Grand Slam tournaments. At Wimbledon 2023, they played a tiebreaker with 38 points (it was 20-18 in favor of the Ukrainian).

The end of the match between Olena Rybakina and Anna Blinkova:

Video source: Eurosport

It is updated.