MELBOURNE, January 17, 2018

Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov headlined Wednesday’s night session on Rod Laver Arena. He took on US-American qualifier Mackenzie McDonald, who recorded his first Tour-level match-win in the first round here.

Dimitrov survived a huge test to earn a 4-6, 6-2, 6-4, 0-6, 8-6 victory. The third seed hit 48 winners and broke serve five times to prevail after three hours and 25 minutes.

“We used to practice in California so I kind of knew him a little bit!”@GrigorDimitrov on his gallant opponent Mackenzie #McDonald.#AusOpen pic.twitter.com/NCEfHqKPzZ

— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) 17. Januar 2018

“I’m just really happy with the win – not because the way I played but the way I fought,” Dimitrov told and added: “Mackenzie was playing unbelievable, absolutely unbelievable. He deserves a lot of credit.”

Dimitrov has moved on to 18 match-wins in Melbourne and joins Manuela Maleeva at the top of the list for most Australian Open match-wins by a Bulgarian player.

He will next take on Russian young gun Andrey Rublev.