Grigor Dimitrov won his 11th set in a row at the US Open 2024 when he took the second set in the Round of 16 match against Andrey Rublev on Sunday in a tiebreak. Soon after, he produced a moment which will be remembered in US Open history and made the Arthur Ashe crowd cheer for him widely. At the age of 33, Dimitrov’s unreal athleticism made some mouths open in disdain, while others applauded.
During the first game of the third set, Dimitrov and Rublev produced the best rally of the fourth-round matchup. The Russian was in command of the point as he played some extremely aggressive tennis. But due to his brilliant defense, the Bulgarian managed to stay in the rally. Constantly running the full lengths of the baseline, everyone expected the veteran to lose the point.
However, a full split and a powerful backhand shot later, the former World No.3 Dimitrov won the point.
CATCH ME OR I GO HOU-DIMI
Sensational escape from @GrigorDimitrov! pic.twitter.com/lTbGQgxV5L
— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 1, 2024
The commentator on air could not believe it and exclaimed “(Dimitrov) Like a teenager again!,” to aptly react to the rally.
Even tennis enthusiasts on social media were left in awe as several reacted to clips of the point.
Best rally of the match but it was too bad to lose a easy volley from rublev #USOpen
— Abhinav Akula (@abhinavshakes1) September 1, 2024
This is mind blowing man
— Dua zainab (@isra86884) September 1, 2024
Grigor Dimitrov pulls off a magic act on the court—simply sensational!
— Fatima Khan (@Fatimakhan8628) September 1, 2024
Despite somehow managing to win that absurd point, Dimitrov went on to lose the game. It seemed as if Rublev took that point seriously as he managed to turn things around in the third set, eventually winning it 6-1.
With that, Rublev broke Dimitrov’s 11-set winning streak at the US Open too, despite hurting himself by smashing his racquet on his hand and feet in the first set.
At the time of writing this report, both the players were level 1-1 in the fourth set. While Rublev took the third, Dimitrov won the first two sets, 6-3, 7-6, which still made him the favorite to advance to the quarterfinals on Tuesday.