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ATP Cup news - GB fall to Grigor Dimitrov-inspired Bulgaria in near 3am finish
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Published 03/01/2020 at 18:02 GMT
Great Britain lost their opening ATP Cup tie to Bulgaria after Jamie Murray and Joe Salisbury were defeated in the early hours of Saturday morning in Australia.
Grigor Dimitrov (3L) and Alexandar Lazarov (C-R) of Bulgaria celebrate with teammates after winning their men's doubles match against Jamie Murray and Joe Salisbury of Britain (L) at the ATP Cup tennis tournament in Sydney on January 4, 2020
Image credit: Getty Images
Grigor Dimitrov inspired Bulgaria to the victory, winning his singles match against Dan Evans before teaming up with Alexandar Lazarov to win the doubles, which finished at 2:47am in Sydney.
Cameron Norrie had put GB 1-0 up when beating world number 423 Dimitar Kuzmanov 6-2 3-6 6-2, but Dimitrov levelled when battling past Evans 6-2 4-6 6-1.
In the deciding doubles rubber, Dimitrov and Lazarov won 7-6 (7-5) 6-7 (2-7) 11-9 against Murray and Salisbury, who had two match points in the match tie-break.
GB will need to overcome Belgium on Sunday to give themselves a chance of reaching the quarter-finals.
The six group winners, plus two best runners-up, make the last eight of the new 24-team tournament.
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