Grigor Dimitrov is in the fourth round of the Australian Open: The third-placed Bulgarian beats Andrey Rublev from Russia in four sets.
Nothing was easy to get off the ground at temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius on day five of the Australian Open 2018. And so it was only logical that Grigor Dimitrov had to fight back two break points in the final serve game of his 6-3,4-6,6-4,6-4,6-4 win over Andrey Rublev. The fact that the Bulgarians even bowed down after just over three hours of joy showed how hard Dimitrov had had to fight for this victory.
The match kept swaying back and forth: Rublev was leading in the first and third sets with one break each – and lost both rounds. Dimitrov again failed to take advantage of a break in the second set, allowing for the Russian’s comeback.
Both players suffered from the heat – not only during the rallies. Dimitrov and Rublev gave each other the points on the serve: The favourite scored 15 double errors, Rublev only two less. Grigor Dimitrov’s victory over the representative of #NextGen was also a reward for his defeat of Rublev at the US Open in 2017.
The next task will not be any easier: Dimitrov, who was in the semi-finals last year, will now face either Jo-Wilfried Tsonga or local hero Nick Kyrgios.
Here the single tableau of the Australian Open