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Impressive Frances Tiafoe beats Dimitrov to face Rafael Nadal in the AO quarters

The American beats Dimitrov after a passionate 4-setter. Nadal next.

20 January 2019

Frances Tiafoe keeps his march in Melbourne.

The young American beats Grigor Dimitrov on Sunday when he also turns 21. This is the second top scalp that the American conquered this week after he also defeated the world no.6 Kevin Anderson 4-6 6-4 6-4 7-5 in the 2nd round.

The match vs. Dimitrov

The contest was a sheer battle. After a massive hold in the 4th game of the 1st set in the 4th game (2-2), Tiafoe conquered an important break in the 7th game (4-3). However, the American failed to serve out the set while leading 5-4 and he had to break Dimitrov again in the 11th game (6-5) before winning the opener 7-5.

In the second set, after an exchange of breaks in the 6th and 7th game, the pair went to play a dramatic tiebreak that Dimitrov could not win after he was leading 6-3 and Tiafoe went 2 sets-up.

The third set was a copy and paste of the second with a similar break exchange in the 6th and 7th game. The only difference this time was that it was Dimitrov to win the following breaker.

The fourth set was decided at the very end when Tiafoe broke Dimitrov in the 11th game. The final score was 7-5 7-6 (5) 6-7 (1) 7-5 and the contest ended after 3 hours and 39 minutes.