Two American men came away with stunning victories on Tuesday at the 2020 Australian Open. In a pair of five set second round thrillers, Tommy Paul of Voorhees Township, New Jersey, the 80th ranked player in the world, knocked out 18th ranked Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria 6-4, 7-6, 3-6, 6-7, 7-6, and Tennys Sandgren of Gallatin, Tennessee, the 100th ranked player in the world, knocked out the eighth ranked player in the world, Matteo Berrettini of Italy, 7-6, 6-4, 4-6, 2-6, 7-5.
In Paul’s win over Dimitrov, Paul won the fifth set tiebreaker handily 10-3. In only the second year that the Australian Open has instituted this new tie breaking system for the fifth set, Paul was able to pull out a fifth set win after losing the third and fourth sets. Even though most of the statistics went Dimitrov’s way, Paul did have three fewer double faults than his opponent.
This was the first ever meeting between Paul and Dimitrov. In 2019, Dimitrov reached a grand slam semifinal for the third time in his career, as he made the final four at the U.S. Open. The loss to Paul should come as a huge surprise, and the Bulgarian may need to ask his ex-girlfriend Maria Sharapova for some further advice. This is the first time that Paul has reached the third round of a major.
In Sandgren’s win over Berrettini, the 28 year-old American is trying to repeat his success down under. In 2018, Sandgren reached the quarterfinals at the Australian Open where he beat Jeremy Chardy, Stanislas Wawrinka and Dominic Thiem along the way. A major reason for Sandgren’s win came down to unforced errors. Sandgren had 34 and Berrettini had 49. Berrettini was my pick as a possible sleeper to win the title. He had just reached the semifinals of the 2019 U.S. Open.
