Victorious Dimitrov, gutsy Donaldson do it all in the best match yet

PARIS—Soon after his second-round match on Court 18 against fourth-seeded Grigor Dimitrov had passed the four-hour mark, Jared Donaldson toed the line to serve at 6-all, 40-30—and tossed in an underhanded serve:

Dimitrov struck his reply long; Donaldson called “a cheeky way to win a point.” It was only the fourth time Donaldson had played in a fifth set, and the first time Donaldson had hit a serve like that since the second round of the Orange Bowl 14s.

By this stage, it was clear that Donaldson’s body was collapsing. On the subsequent changeover, the trainer treated Donaldson’s left thigh for cramps.

“I wasn’t tired,” said Donaldson, “but my leg muscles had reached their limit.”

Two games later, with Dimitrov about to serve for the match at 8-7, came another trainer visit, this time on the 21-year-old American’s right quad. Even amid all that pain, Donaldson was convinced that the best tennis of the match by both players came in the 64-minute fifth set. Dimitrov concurred.

“I felt everything else was just out there," said the Bulgarian. "The game itself was going in a very—in a way, normal way, I like to say. Because I think he was doing some mistakes. I was doing some mistakes. But then, when it really got down to the crucial moments, we played good tennis.”

Surprisingly, Donaldson had been the one in the lead. He’d won the first set in 7-6 (2), dropped the second 6-4, and won the third by the same score.

Dimitrov is a most curious competitor. Akin to such fairly recent, pleasure-inducing one-handed backhanders like as Tommy Haas and Tim Henman, he has built a commendable resume, and his wide range of results a tribute to his underrated fitness level and, most pleasing, smorgasbord-like options.

And yet, there come those moments when Dimitrov plays a confounding brand of passive tennis, points built more like a user-friendly club pro than a fire-breathing club champion. Such was certainly the case when he grabbed the balls to try and close out Donaldson at 8-7.

The game began with Donaldson pouncing on a 93-m.p.h. second serve to smack a backhand return and elicit a netted forehand. A Dimitrov forehand forced an error. But the next two points were horrendous for Dimitrov, his ball speed dropping, each sequence giving Donaldson a chance to take command. At 15-40, Donaldson fired a bold backhand down the line winner. After four and 13 minutes, the match was dead even again, at 8-all.

Dimitrov had also been extended by a young American in the second round of the Australian Open. In Melbourne, the contender had been 23-year-old MacKenzie McDonald, a former UCLA star who’d lost the decider, 8-6 in the fifth. At least against McDonald, Dimitrov hadn’t lost a game to an underhand serve.

But Dimitrov’s best asset is his studious nature. If earlier in his career there had been assorted lapses and even the occasional tantrum, Dimitrov of late has carried himself with exemplary professionalism. Once upon a time, the “Baby Fed” moniker demonstrated how closely he had studied the great Roger Federer. More recently, he has turned his intellect to his own set of tools. Pondering his state of mind after going down two sets to one, Dimitrov said, “I wanted to play my game the way I wanted to play my game with that margin of, you know, missing or making a winner.”

INTERVIEW: Grigor Dimitrov

And so, when Donaldson hit another underhand serve at 8-8, 15-30, Dimitrov was ready. This time he moved in, sliced a crosscourt backhand deep and approached the net. Donaldson netted the backhand pass. At 15-40, a terrible Donaldson drop shot gave Dimitrov a chance to grab control of the point and get the break lead back.

“It was beautiful, right?” asked Dimitrov about the two underhand serves. “He wanted to use something different to kind of try to put me off guard with that, but okay. I missed the first, yeah, the first time he did it. But also I know why he did it. He was hurting big time.”

At 9-8, serving for the match a second time, Dimitrov made no mistakes, closing it out at love to earn the win, 6-7 (2), 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, 10-8.

It was a fantastic match—arguably the best of the tournament so far—played in late afternoon-early evening sunshine, the crowd thoroughly engaged, each player building points in a variety of ways. While not the breakthrough Slam-level win Donaldson has hoped for, certainly it showed his improved skills, increasing imagination (not just the underhand serve) and considerable grit.

“For me it’s all steps,” said Donaldson. “This is just another one I can learn from and use to improve.”

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