BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — Grigor Dimitrov had to save two match points before getting his Brisbane International title defense underway with a victory against Australian wildcard entry John Millman.
Karolina Pliskova kept her title defense on track with a 3-6, 7-5, 6-2 win over 2012 winner Kaia Kanepi, setting up a semifinal against Elina Svitolina.
The night matches Thursday went all the way, with last year's winners both having to come back from deficits.
Dimitrov won 4-6, 7-6 (8), 6-3 in his first competitive match since winning the ATP Finals, but was pushed for 2 ½ hours and finished after midnight.
The No. 3-ranked Dimitrov was broken in the last game of the first set to give No. 128-ranked Millman the lead. After an exchange of breaks midway through the second, the tournament's top seed had to produce two big service games to stay in the second-round match.
Dimitrov fell behind 3-0 in the tiebreaker, went on a four-point roll to get back in front, then had to scramble to save match points at 6-5 and 7-6 before converting his second set point to force a third.
"I thought I was out — he pushed me to the limit," Dimitrov said. "At moments like that, sometimes it just comes down to improvising. I played aggressive tennis and got rewarded for that.
"First match in about a month — I feel a little bit rusty, but at the same time I'm excited and trying to get into a rhythm."
Dimitrov's next match is a quarterfinal against Kyle Edmund, who had a 7-6 (3), 5-7, 6-4 win over Chung Hyeon.
Pliskova opened last season with victory in Brisbane and rose to the No. 1 ranking in July before finishing 2017 at No. 4.
She struggled against Kanepi's powerful ground strokes in the first set but started to find her range in the second and stayed on top in the third.