site.btaGrigor Dimitrov Exits US Open in First Round

Bulgaria's Grigor Dimitrov dropped out of the US Open Tennis Championships after losing to Australia's Alexei Popyrin 6-3 3-6 2-6 4-6 in the men's singles first round at the grand slam tournament in New York.

The match lasted just over two and a half hours. After a delay because of rain, it started brilliantly for the 35-year-old Bulgarian, who took the opening set with a break in the sixth game. Dimitrov hit five aces and made three double faults in the first set. He was unable to maintain his level on serve.

At the start of the second set, Popyrin and Dimitrov exchanged breaks in consecutive games, before the Australian secured another break in the eighth game, when Dimitrov had two chances to close it out while leading 40-15.

Popyrin raised his level further in the third set, winning five games in a row to take it 6-2.

In what proved to be the final set, the Australian moved 5-1 ahead and, although Dimitrov launched one final charge to cut the deficit to 4-5, he could not complete the comeback.

The Bulgarian finished with 14 double faults, just 51% of first serves landing in, and nine aces. He was significantly behind Popyrin in all three statistics.

In the second round of the US Open, Popyrin will face No. 25 seed Alejandro Tabilo of Chile, who beat Germany's Yannick Hanfmann 6-3, 6-2, 6-7 (7), 6-3.

With his three consecutive victories in qualifying and his appearance in the US Open first round, Dimitrov will climb to around 130th in the world rankings after the tournament. He is currently one place ahead of Popyrin in the live rankings.

Career-wise, Dimitrov is the highest-ranked Bulgarian male tennis player in history, having taken the No. 3 spot on the ATP list in 2017. He reached the US Open semifinals in 2019.