"I was not believing" says Rublev after surviving in epic against Rune at Australian Open

Andrey Rublev did not believe that he would be making a comeback in his match against Holger Rune and with very good Rune, the Danish player did not convert multiple huge chances.

There is not much that will be able to console Holger Rune after he missed multiple chances to find himself in the quarter-final of the Australian Open. He was up 5-2 on Rublev in the final set, then wasted two match points late in the match as Rublev was trying to force a tiebreak. Rune then had a tremendous lead in the match tiebreak but lost it 11-9.

Rublev was lucky and he knows it:

"Yes, I was lucky. I started to think it was over, for sure. Somehow... I was able to start to play with much more focus."

Asked how he maintained belief, Rublev said he didn't:

"I was not believing. Beginning of the fifth set, I was completely frozen. Inside I was thinking that I cannot [win]. I cannot move. I cannot hit. I was thinking it's over. He's playing much better than me. He deserves to win. He's going for the shots. He's doing something that normally I am supposed to do if I want to win the match. I let it go. Somehow the stress that I had, I was able to relieve it. At the end of the match I played much better than during the rest of the match."