Grigor Dimitrov won his first title since 2017 after defeating Denmark's Holger Rune 7-6(5), 6-4 in the final of the ATP 250 series tournament in Brisbane. The Bulgarian tennis player wins the trophy from the competition for the second time in his career and takes a total of nine titles at the ATP level.
In the first part, both tennis players had chances to break through, but in the end, none came and everything was decided in a tiebreak, in which Dimitrov took the first three points and kept his lead until the end to win 7-5 after over an hour of gameplay. In the second set, Dimitrov was more solid and constantly put Rune under pressure on his serves. The world number eight Dane, who led the way, saved four break points in the marathon third game of the set, but continued to struggle on serve and eventually Grigor broke for 4-3, after Rooney saved two match points on his own serve at 5-3, but Dimitrov closed out the match emphatically on his serve with a superb volley winner on his third match point. The match lasted more than two hours.
In doing so, Dimitrov continued his strong run from late last year, when he recorded a number of prestigious victories and reached the Paris Masters final, losing to Novak Djokovic. With this success, he will climb to 13th place in the world ranking and will enter the year's first Grand Slam tournament - the Australian Open - with increased confidence. Grigor is less than 200 points away from returning to the top 10 in the world
Grigor Dimitrov was very steady with his serves throughout the match, reflecting all three break opportunities that opened up to his opponent. The Bulgarian made 28 winning shots against only 8 unforced errors, while Rune's balance was 35/15. Grisho won 17 points from 26 outs at the net and hit 8 aces, taking 77 percent of his first serve points.
En route to the title in Brisbane, Dimitrov recorded victories over Andy Murray, Daniel Attlemeier, Rinky Hijikata, Jordan Thompson and Holger Rune, dropping just one set in his first match against Murray. The Bulgarian tennis player now has 19 wins in his last 24 matches.
The Australian Open will be held from January 14-28. /BGNES
