Australian
Ranked 186th, American Mackenzie McDonald, right, almost defeats Grigor Dimitrov.
MELBOURNE, Australia — It was quite a predicament for Grigor Dimitrov, still basking in his triumph at the ATP Finals as he entered his second-round match at the Australian Open against a young American who had never won a tour-level match before qualifying for the first major of the season.
Mackenzie McDonald is ranked 186th and played tennis at UCLA. He had never played anyone ranked better than No. 69 before facing the thirdseeded Dimitrov on Wednesday.
McDonald broke Dimitrov’s serve three times in the fourth set and pushed the fifth beyond 12 games — there’s no tiebreakers in fifth sets at the Australian Open — before his first double-fault of the set suddenly gave Dimitrov a match point.
Dimitrov finished it off 4-6, 6-2, 6-4, 0-6, 8-6 as midnight approached.
“Really the game wasn’t there today. I wasn’t feeling well on the court — fourth set was a disgrace,” said Dimitrov, who took Rafael Nadal to five sets in a marathon semifinal in Melbourne last year. “But I won with what I had. That was my fighting spirit.
“He played an unbelievable game (but) experience in the end really helped me.”
That seemed to be a theme of Day 3.
Second-seeded Caroline Wozniacki had to save two match points and come back from 5-1 down in the third set to beat 119thranked Jana Fett 3-6, 6-2, 7-5. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the 2008 Australian Open finalist, rallied from 5-2 down in the fifth to overcome Denis Shapovalov 3-6, 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 (4), 7-5.
Top-ranked Nadal, the 2017 runner-up, didn’t risk any close calls. He made only 10 unforced errors and had just one hiccup — dropping a service game while serving for the match — in a 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (4) win over Leonardo Mayer.
Dimitrov’s reward for beating McDonald is a match against No. 30 Andrey Rublev, who beat him at the 2017 U.S. Open. Rublev beat 2006 Australian Open finalist Marcos Baghdatis 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-2.