Veteran Grigor Dimitrov staged a 5-7, 6-2, 6-4 comeback on Wednesday to dump Carlos Alcaraz out of the Shanghai Masters and keep the youngster from a possible return to the top ranking.
The 32-year-old Bulgarian turned the tables on the world No. 2, who would have needed to reach the final here in order to displace Novak Djokovic from the top ATP spot.
Alcaraz went down to defeat in just over two hours as he lost to Dimitrov for the first time in four meetings as they played in the fourth round.
Dimitrov moves into a quarter-final against Nicolas Jarry after firing 10 aces over Alcaraz and breaking the top-seeded debutant four times.
“He had gotten the best of me in our other matches,” the winner said. “But I kept believing and stayed in the match.
“I was hoping he would miss and give me some opportunities. I think I pushed him into a lot of errors
“In the second set I started to understand his service games and rad him a bit better.
“It was cat and mouse in the third set, and I stayed very solid. I tried to apply constant pressure even when I was down in the match.even if I was down.
“I may have rattled him a little bit.”
Alcaraz lost only his ninth match of the season but failed to reach his 13th quarter-final from 14 events this season.
Dimitrov will be playing his second Shanghai quarter and 17th overall at the Masters level.
Main photo:- Grigor Dimitrov beating Carlos Alcaraz in Shanghai – by Pete Staples/ATPTour.com
