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Elena Rybakina's sister Anna's rollercoaster of emotions was on full display during the former's second-round epic at the Australian Open. The No. 3 seed from Kazakhstan engaged in a three-set marathon against Anna Blinkova that witnessed a record-breaking deciding set tie-break.
The duo shattered the record for the longest-ever tie-break in Grand Slam history, playing out an astounding forty-two points with 16 combined match points over 31 draining minutes. Their feat eclipsed the previous record set by Lesia Tsurenko and Ana Bogdan at Wimbledon last year. Tsurenko and Bogdan's 38 points tiebreaker matched the previous record set by Andy Roddick and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga at the 2007 Australian Open.
The Russian ultimately beat Rybakina on her 10th match point, taking the contest 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (22-20).
Amongst all the tension during the match, there was one person in particular in the audience who couldn't bear to watch at times. Anna Rybakina, Elena Rybakina's elder sister, expressed emotions varying from stress to relief that echoed everybody's sentiments as to just how stressful the entire occasion was.
Anna has a record of being photographed with her hands on her mouth during her sister's encounters, and fans were left wondering just how many more moments like this she could survive.
One fan wrote on X (formerly Twitter):
"It seems like she suffers more than Elena Rybakina herself, haha."
"Elena shows no emotion on the court. She has transferred all her emotions to her sister," said another.
"Same vibe," posted another fan.
Here are a few more reactions from fans online:
Anna Blinkova describes defeating Elena Rybakina in super tie-break as best day of her life
Overcome by emotion, Anna Blinkova conceded that she was living the best day of her life minutes after her monumental win against Elena Rybakina.
Speaking at the press conference after her post-match embrace with the Kazakh, Blinkova expressed her sheer joy at coming out on top in the epic.
“This day I’ll remember for the rest of my life, on this court with this crowd, it’s the best of my life so far,” Blinkova said.
She proceeded to thank the Melbourne faithful for their support despite all the nerves.
“Thank you to the crowd for encouraging me, it gave me so much energy to fight until the end. It was super tough, I tried to stay focused on every point. I had so many match points and tried to be aggressive at these moments but my hand was shaking, and my legs too.”
Blinkova will face off against 26th seed Jasmine Paolini on Saturday in the third round.
