A real tennis lesson. The former top 3 and current 12th in the world, Grigor Dimitrov was not aware of the Spanish Carlos Alcaraz, second placed, on Thursday night, and gave a lesson to the 2022 champion.
The Bulgarian beat the Murcian by 2 sets to 0 with a resounding 6/2 6/4 after 1h32min on the packed center court of the Hard Rock Stadium.
Alcaraz had been at his best since the middle of last year, adding nine consecutive victories with the Masters 1000 title in Indian Wells, California, and seeking the Sunshine Double for the first time – that is, winning both Masters on North soil. American in the same year.
Dimitrov achieves his second victory in five games in the direct confrontation between the two and will face German Alexander Zverev, fifth in the world, who scored 6/3 7/5 over Hungarian Fabian Marozsan.
Dimitrov showed great tennis from the beginning, opening 3-0, holding his serve well and taking advantage of another chance, finishing the set with a beautiful backhand winner, surprising the Spaniard who saw the powerful low ball pass straight to him on the counter foot. Dimitrov broke early in the second set after a double fault, a silly mistake on the left and the Spaniard’s haste as he took a left pass to be broken. Grigor opened 4-1 and continued to press on the return. However, Alcaraz played a great seventh game with heavy, deep balls and fired up the crowd by returning the break. He equalized at 4-4, but Dimitrov held on and closed with another break after the Spaniard’s error.
There were 24 winners and 14 errors for Dimitrov in the high-level match.
