On the flip side, Borg’s second serve and backhand up the line held firm under pressure in helping change his scoreboard narrative for a period. The 19-year-old showed bursts of an evolving all-court style, one highlighted by a promising understanding of when to come in and how to make the volley count.
At 4-4 in the second set, an erratic overhead from Paul on his serve +1 resulted in Borg arriving at break point, one that would have enabled him to serve for the biggest win of his young career. The world No. 31 instead shrugged it off with effective placement down the T—and that’s as close as the 19-year-old would get to seeing the finish line.
A game later, Borg was broken at love. Now back on even terms, Paul used his experience to pull away in lining up a showdown with another local favorite, Mikael Ymer. The Swede earlier advanced past Quentin Halys, 5-7, 6-4, 6-3.
As for Dimitrov, the sixth seed was edged out by Jiri Lehecka, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (5). Lehecka won the final five points of the decisive tiebreaker to hand Dimitrov his 10th defeat in 14 matches. The Bulgarian is approaching five years since his last triumph, when he ended 2017 with a bang by capturing his biggest crown to date at the ATP Finals.
Lehecka meets Emil Ruusuvuori for a place in the quarterfinals.