While Rublev received a medical time out, Croft continued her brutal evaluation of his behaviour. "I mean it’s embarrassing, isn’t it? That he does this to himself," she remarked.

"And it’s happened so many times before. Normally, as I said, it’s the knuckles that he’ll be punching the strings with but I mean, that was quite a few heavy blows."

Rublev continued playing and screamed in frustration as Dimitrov edged closer to taking the first set. The Bulgarian sealed it with an ace, leading 6-3 after 47 minutes. After dropping the first two sets, Rublev forced a decider. But Dimitrov ultimately came through 6-3 7-6(3) 1-6 3-6 6-3 to reach his first US Open quarter-final in five years.