Grigor Dimitrov watched as his opponent, Nick Kyrgios of Australia, dug himself out of a two-sets-to-love deficit. He listened as the crowd in Rod Laver Arena grew louder and rowdier every time their man won a point. And he groaned when, serving for the match at 5-3 in the fourth set, he flipped a feeble second serve into the net and was broken.

Now, after six points in the fourth-set tiebreaker, Dimitrov found himself knotted at 3-3 with Kyrgios and staring down the barrel of an unwelcome fifth set. The Aussie was fighting in a way that he rarely fights, with a focused, undistracted positivity, and the audience was responding. When Kyrgios curled a forehand winner into the corner to make it 3-all, he raised his fist as he crossed to the other side of the court. In the battle of body language, the stalking Kyrgios had the edge on the slumped Dimitrov. Twelve moths earlier the Bulgarian had lost a five-set heartbreaker in the semifinals to Rafael Nadal on this court, and he had lost to Kyrgios in Brisbane two weeks earlier. Was a repeat of both of those losses around the corner?

Over the next five points, Dimitrov gave us our answer, and it was a resounding no. In the process, he showed off all of his athletic gifts, and why they’ve taken him to No. 3 in the world.

At 3-3, he sprinted across the court to his right to track down a forehand, then sprinted all the way across the court to his left to track down a seemingly ungettable backhand, eventually forcing Kyrgios into an error. At 4-3, Dimitrov backpedaled to hit a forehand from outside the doubles alley; after giving up so much court, he had to produce a winner, and he did, in the most difficult way possible, by lifting the ball over the high part of the net and dropping it into the near corner. At 5-3, Dimitrov knocked off a high forehand volley for a winner. And at 6-4, he topped it off with the pièce de résistance, a full-stretch forehand that he somehow managed to rip back crosscourt, and past a charging Kyrgios, for another winner.

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The Overnight—Happy days at Happy Slam for Edmund, Wozniacki, Dimitrov

The Overnight—Happy days at Happy Slam for Edmund, Wozniacki, Dimitrov

“I learned that I can switch to another gear when I really need it,” Dimitrov said after his 7-6 (3), 7-6 (4), 6-4, 7-6 (4) victory. “I think this is something that I have been struggling obviously this tournament.”

“But today I was just able to overtake my game completely differently, having a high percentage in the first serve, high percentage on the return. Being able to play my game a little more, counting a little bit more on my strongest weapons. I think that was a good step forward for me.”

Dimitrov won just one more point than Kyrgios in this punchy, imperfect, high-energy contest, but he won two more sets. He did it, as John McEnroe said on ESPN, by “digging in more than Kyrgios” in the tiebreakers. Kyrgios played well, and he never threw in the towel mentally. But I came away wondering about his backhand again; specifically, the way he guides it instead of ripping it. Kyrgios has made his flat, unorthodox two-hander into a reliable stroke, but can it be more? Early in the fourth-set tiebreaker, a ball floated toward him down the middle of the court. Rather than run around it and hit a forehand, Kyrgios stepped in and pulled a backhand crosscourt, with topspin, for a winner. Typically he would guide a backhand like that—that’s why Dimitrov was able to make that amazing get at 3-3 in the breaker—but this time Kyrgios showed that, when he wants to, he can go after it and drive it with topspin. It would serve him well to try it more often. If Dimitrov can switch to another gear, Kyrgios can, too.

On this night, though, it was Dimitrov who went after his shots when it mattered most, who raced forward and executed the offensive plays that he and his coach, Dani Vallverdu, have worked for the last year to install. Kyrgios’s time will come; Dimitrov’s is here now.

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The Overnight—Happy days at Happy Slam for Edmund, Wozniacki, Dimitrov

The Overnight—Happy days at Happy Slam for Edmund, Wozniacki, Dimitrov

Singapore Slinger

Magdalena Rybarikova was on fire to start her fourth-round match against Caroline Wozniacki. The subtle Slovak mixed spins and paces, ghosted forward to close points with volleys, pounded her surprisingly robust first serve, and amazed herself by sending a bullet forehand down the line for a winner. When she earned a break point early, it looked like an upset could be on.

But there was one person in the arena who appeared to be skeptical of this early onslaught. Unfortunately for Rybarikova, it was her opponent. Wozniacki often flashes a look of steely skepticism when a player hits a winner past her—“Let’s see if you can keep that up,” she seems to be saying. And she’s right—most of the time her opponents can’t keep it up. It’s that prove-it-until-the-last-shot attitude that helped Wozniacki save two match points and come back from 1-5 down in the third set of her second-round match in Melbourne.

Rather than wait for Rybarikova to get nervous and make errors, Wozniacki took the rallies to her. She saved that early break point by spinning a second-serve ace down the T, and from there she never stopped sending balls past her increasingly flummoxed opponent. Wozniacki finished with 25 winners and won 11 of the last 12 games. Instead of hanging back and looping the ball, she flattened out her shots—her serve and return were especially good—and gave Rybarikova no time to weave her artful web.

“I thought I played very well,” Wozniacki said after her 6-3, 6-0 win. “I tried to stay aggressive. I got a lot of returns back...I was waiting for the right opportunity to go in and go for my shots.”

Last October, Wozniacki played the best, most intelligently proactive tennis of her career at the WTA Finals in Singapore, and she was rewarded with the biggest title of her career. Many of us wondered whether she could re-climb those new heights in 2018. In this match, Wozniacki made it back there; she was slinging the ball Singapore-style. If she keeps it up, she may have an even bigger title coming her way by the end of the week.

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The Dawn of the Edmundian Age?

“Kyle Edmund wasn’t able to get the better of the interview there,” TV commentator Jason Goodall said, a little sadly, after Edmund’s on-court, post-victory chat on Sunday.

And it was true, Edmund muttered, stammered, covered his eyes, and looked everywhere but in the direction of the interviewer as he was being questioned. When the torture was finally over, he appeared more than happy to make his escape.

Unfortunately, there will be more interviews in Edmund’s life, hundreds of them, maybe thousands, maybe hundred of thousands if he keeps playing the way he has played in Melbourne so far. The British tennis press will see to that, especially if their top target, Andy Murray, is off the tour for an extended period. How does Edmund feel about carrying the flag in Murray’s stead?

“I get asked that a lot,” Edmund said, before covering his eyes again and trailing off.

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The Overnight—Happy days at Happy Slam for Edmund, Wozniacki, Dimitrov

The Overnight—Happy days at Happy Slam for Edmund, Wozniacki, Dimitrov

Edmund will have time to improve his repartee. What matters now is that he comes out of his shell on court. Until this week, the 23-year-old, who was born in South Africa, has been one of the more meh members of the Next Gen brigade. Edmund entered the tournament ranked 49th, and compared to his Top 20 opponents, his game seemed either disjointed or sloppy or both. Given a prime slot on Centre Court at Wimbledon against Gael Monfils last year, Edmund wilted in the home-country spotlight.

Has all of that changed in the course of a week? No one has been a tougher out than Edmund so far. In reaching his first Grand Slam quarterfinal, he has won two five-set matches, including one over 11th seed Kevin Anderson (video above), and last night, a four-setter over Andreas Seppi. In all three cases, he bounced back from a set down.

Edmund, a solid-bodied 6’2”, has always had two weapons, his serve and his forehand. Now he’s making more returns, and hitting his backhand with more depth. Most important, he seems to be growing a killer instinct. Credit for that may go to one of his new mentors, Freddie Rosengren, a veteran Swedish coach known for his indefatigable enthusiasm. Together they spent a hard-working off-season at Lleyton Hewitt’s place in the Bahamas.

Still, nothing helps more than winning.

“It’s always good to see when the results come,” Edmund said on Sunday, “because that’s when it really shows it’s paying off...If you improve but carry on losing, it doesn’t help anything.”

Is Edmund ready for more wins in Melbourne, over Dimitrov in the quarters and Rafael Nadal in the semis? And is he ready for all the talking he’ll have to do if does keep going?

Read Joel Drucker and Nina Pantic on TENNIS.com as they report from the Australian Open, and watch them each day on The Daily Mix:

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