Miami (USA) – Just as had happened in the most recent duel, played at the end of last year in Beijing, Grigor Dimitrov once again overcame Carlos Alcaraz and secured a place in the semifinals of the Masters 1000 in Miami. The Bulgarian scored splits of 6/2 and 6/4 in just 1h32 of the match. It was his second victory in five games against the Spaniard on the circuit.
Former world number 3 and winner of nine ATP titles, Dimitrov is 32 years old and is having the best campaign of his career in Miami. He is looking for the 20th final of his career and the third in Masters 1000. In tournaments of this size, he was champion of Cincinnati in 2017 and runner-up last year in Paris. The current 12th in the ranking can return to the top 10 if they win one more.
Dimitrov’s opponent in this Friday’s semi-final at 8pm will be German Alexander Zverev, number 5 in the rankings. Zverev has a wide advantage in the history of clashes, 7-1, and Dimitrov’s only victory was in the first duel between them, held in 2014.
In turn, Alcaraz did not repeat the semifinal reached last year. The 20-year-old Spaniard and champion of the tournament in 2022 could be overtaken in the rankings by Jannik Sinner, if the Italian wins the title. Sinner is in the semi-final against Russian Daniil Medvedev, winner of the last edition. And if he wins, he will compete in the final against Zverev or Dimitrov.
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The match started with four very long games and opportunities for both sides, but Dimitrov was the one who prevailed in the most important moments. The Bulgarian managed an early break and escaped the four break-points he faced to win 3/0. And he only didn’t open 4/0 because Alcaraz confirmed the service with difficulty afterwards, saving two more break-points. After that, Dimitrov began to confirm his services more calmly and even broke again with an excellent backhand winner on the parallel. After 49 minutes of the set, he was 13-10 on winners and made one more error, 9-8.
Right at the beginning of the second set, Dimitrov broke again and won 3/1. The Bulgarian made good use of slices to avoid leaving the Spaniard in uncomfortable situations. When he was losing 4/1, Alcaraz still saved a break point and soon after played an impeccable game to return the break after a sequence of winners. The fans pushed Alcaraz, wanting more play, and the Spaniard sought a 4/4 draw. But Dimitrov wasn’t fazed by the Spaniard’s reaction, he regained good rhythm on his serve and was aggressive to get another one and close the game in straight sets.
Dimitrov led the winners 24 to 18 and made 17 errors to the Spaniard’s 14. The Bulgarian took advantage of four of the eight break chances he had and only lost one service game in the match, despite facing five break points.
