Grigor Dimitrov will play against Alexander Shevchenko in the quarterfinals of the tournament on hard courts in Rotterdam (Netherlands) with a prize fund of 2.29 million euros. The Russian competing for Kazakhstan surprisingly defeated Holger Rune 6:4, 1:6, 6:3.
Before that, the Bulgarian defeated in two sets the 86th in the world Hungarian Marton Fucovich with 6:3, 7:5 and passed to the next round of the ATP500 tournament.
Dimitrov, who is seeded No. 6 in the tournament, where he was in the semifinals last year, broke once in both sets and reached the success in 89 minutes of play.
In the first set, the two won their serves until the eighth game, in which Dimitrov broke and led 5:3, after which he ended the set on his own serve.
In the second, the situation was identical, but the Bulgarian had a critical moment in the tenth game, in which Fuchovic had a set ball. Grigor reflected the break point, then made a break in turn and ended the match on his serve with his second match point for 7:5.
“I played a better match than yesterday for sure, I hit the ball better, in the important moments I went to the net and played aggressively, which helped me a lot. I kept a high level of play, which helped me a lot against a player like Marton (Fucović). We always have such battles with him, we even said this to each other on the net: Every time is difficult, today was a little different. But this is tennis and today I really played more freely,” Dimitrov commented on the meeting to BNR.
He continues without losing a set in his tenth appearance in the Dutch hall “Ahoy”, where he debuted with a “wild card” 15 years ago.
Until now, Dimitrov has not met the 23-year-old Shevchenko, who is ranked 57th in the world ranking, on the court.
