After three doubles matches, the Kites and Eagles sent out Andrey Rublev and Grigor Dimitrov for the first singles match.
After three doubles matches, the Kites were up by four points, which meant that Rublev had a lot of work to do against a very tricky player in Dimitrov. The Bulgarian had a really strong year in 2023, arguably his best in years, and the hope is to bring the same level to this upcoming season.
This wasn't a bad start from Dimitrov, who looked really comfortable at the start of the match. The pressure was far bigger for Rublev, who needed to win this match, while Dimitrov could even lose it, just not by much to keep his team in the lead.
The tournament is played in a unique format where players are paired up in teams of four, with every tie being played in five separate matches. Each match features only one set, and three of the five are doubles, with the remaining being singles.
Each game won in each match counts as one point, which matters most. At the end of each tie, the winning team is the one that has the most points.
The team that wins three out of the five matches likely wins the tie unless the other team manages to win dominantly 6-0 or 6-1 in their two victorious matches.
Rublev certainly understood the assignment as he took a break midway through the first set 4-1. He would easily hold that lead until the end of the match, with the final score being 6-3.
The win pulled his team within only one before the final singles match. Just like the first tie of the day, this one is going down to the wire. Stick with us to find out whether the Kites or the Eagles win this one.
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