World No.3 Dominic Thiem was left to lament a combination of a bad day, physical issues and a red-hot Grigor Dimitrov after crashing out of the Australian Open fourth round.
Two days after completing a stunning five-set turnaround against Nick Kyrgios, Thiem copped a 6-4 6-4 6-0 thrashing, with Dimitrov ripping through the final set in just 21 minutes.
The third seed was reluctant to use tiredness from his third-round match as an excuse, instead writing the loss off as a mix of factors.
"(It was) a combination of some things, some little physical issues, plus a real bad day, plus the fact that, well, he's a great player," Thiem said.
"So a combination of those three things, and a result like that can happen.
"(I had) some little physical issues. I don't want to go closer to them. I don't want to find any excuses.
"But the thing also is that I'm also not a machine. I mean, sometimes I would like to be, but there are really, really bad days.
"As soon as you're not 100 per cent there on the court on this level, then results like this come up, and that's exactly what happened today."
The US Open champion let the first two sets slip, then looked a shadow of himself in the third as a brilliant Dimitrov closed out the match in style.
The 18th seed will play unheralded Russian Aslan Karatsev in the quarter-finals and Thiem said he hoped to see Dimitrov kick on.
"(For around 10 years) he's (been) one of the best players on tour," Thiem said.
"If he's on, he's super tough to play, especially in faster conditions than now, and I really wish that he can make a great breakthrough at a grand slam.
"He would definitely deserve it."
.png?w=600)
