Dimitrov battles back from 0-2 to force decider but ultimately fails to advance

After a tough first-round match against Londero where he was also trailing Dimitrov founds himself in a worse situation Wednesday night. His opponent was American Tommy Paul who started the year off very well which was evident in this match. He played great on his serve while conveying the only break point he faced. It was enough for the 1st set 6-4.

The second was a tougher battle where both players played well on their own serves. As is usually happens in those situations we ended up in the tiebreak where the American was more composed. He won it 7-6(6). In the 3rd set, we finally had Grigor step it up and play much better. His opponent struggled a bit on his serve and couldn't hang on so it went to Dimitrov 6-3.

Set number 4 was a copy of the 2nd set. Both players played well on their own serve and once again we ended up in a tiebreak. This time around the Bulgarian was more focused he took it convincingly 7-3. After 4 sets it was all level so it meant we would have a decider. The nature of the match was so that this match could have easily carried it beyond the 7th game mark but recent rules changes prevented that.

The final set started out slowly with both players prioritising keeping their own serve. As the set went along, however, it was Dimitrov who slowly came out on top. He took the brake and he was serving for the match at 5-4. He took the lead 30-00 but the Paul stepped up and delivered a flurry of shots stringing 4 points in a row and tying it at 5-5. After that, we ended up in a decider where Paul was completely dominant winning it 10-3.

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