Melbourne (AFP)
Dominic Thiem (3rd in the world), without energy after his marathon in the previous round against Nick Kyrgios, was swept away in the round of 16 of the Australian Open on Sunday by Grigor Dimitrov (21st) 6-4, 6-4, 6 -0 in just over two hours.
"It was one of those days when I had to stay focused on my game and what I had to do. I could see he was struggling, but I managed to stay focused taking all three sets," noted the Bulgarian without showing overwhelming joy.
"I'm not going to be too humble, I'm obviously very happy to be in the quarterfinals," he said, however.
Unlike Thiem, Dimitrov had a particularly easy third round since he had benefited from the abandonment of his opponent Pablo Carreno at the start of the second set.
At 29, the Bulgarian, ex-World No. 3, will play his fourth quarter-final in Melbourne where he reached the semi-finals in 2017. He then pushed Rafael Nadal to the fifth set.
In the next round, the Bulgarian will face the Russian Aslan Karatsev (114th), from qualifying and who is playing his first Grand Slam, winner of the Canadian Félix Auger-Aliassime (19th).
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