(Tennis news) To advance to the third round, Rune eliminated Roberto Carballes Baena and George Loffhagen. To get to the fourth round, he had to defeat Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, the 31st seed. Rune got the match started by winning four straight games to take the lead. He originally succeeded in overturning a break deficit in the second set, but he was unable to do so again, costing him the set. Davidovich Fokina won the third set as well to take control of the match.

Rune’s comeback officially got underway after it. He won the fourth set to tie the match, and at 5-4 in the decider, he turned back a few match points. The Danish teenager trailed 8-5 in the ensuing tie-break but turned the tables on his adversary to record a comeback victory of 6-3, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, and 7-6 (8).

Dimitrov defeated Sho Shimabukaro and Ilya Ivashka to advance to a third-round matchup with Frances Tiafoe, the world’s No. 10 player. The match was completely under the control of the Bulgarian.

On Saturday, Dimitrov won the first two sets and was ahead 2-1 in the third set when play was called off for the day. He continued where he left off on Sunday, winning the game 6-2, 6-3, 6-2. 

Head-to-Head

Since this would be their first encounter, the head-to-head record is now 0-0.

Predictions

In the previous round, Rune barely made it out alive. While he displayed great courage to prevail, Davidovich Fokina utterly losing the plot towards the end was also helpful. Nine double faults were added to the Dane’s 19 aces.

Rune made 61 correct swings and four fewer unforced errors than that. On the other hand, Dimitrov defeated Tiafoe with a faultless performance. He smacked 13 aces, didn’t encounter a single break point, and won a staggering 93% of his first serve points. The Bulgarian made just 14 unforced errors while launching 33 winners.

So far, Dimitrov has used the backhand slice really well, either to score points or to build up a forehand winner. Rune is probably aware of the approach, but given how skillfully the Bulgarian has used it, it might be difficult for him to counter it.

Rune will be the hardest test Dimitrov has yet to face after sailing through the draw thus far. But if he keeps playing like this, he should be able to defeat his younger rival.

Grigor Diitrov to win in 4 sets (3-1)

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