Grigor Dimitrov made a dent in a career-long losing record against Stefanos Tsitsipas on Saturday, outlasting the seventh seed 6-3, 6-7 (1), 7-6 (3) to reach the final of the Paris Masters.
The 32-year-old winner stood 1-6 against the Greek before the match, and was pleased to have won for the second time on such a big stage.
Tsitsipas is heading to the ATP Finals in Turin starting next Monday after securing one of eight spots in the field this week,
Dimitrov will bid on Sunday for his second title at the elite Masters level (after Cincinnait, 2017) when he plays the winner from Novak Djokovic and Andrey Rublev.
The Bulgarian was playing the second semi-final of the autumn after reaching the final four last month in Shanghai.
He finished off Tsitsipas on a second match point of a final-set tiebreaker in just over two and a half hours.
“I cannot express anything,” the winner said, “I’m just ut happy i was able to get through the match in such a manner (two one-way tiebreaks in three
“Things got tricky again in the third set, I was doing a lot of things well, but he picked up his game in the second set.
“In the end I was just waiting for the tiebreaker (where he took a 5-0 lead). I had a fast start with 5-0, I was taking my chances.
“That’s all you can do against such a high-quality player.” I kept on believing, stayed focused.
“Every time my racquet touched the ball i tried to be doing something with it.
“It’s been a funny road for me the last weeks, but each win means more and more to me.”
Dimitrov ended with 38 winners and 22 unforced errors while Tsitsipas had 29 and 39. The Greek now stands 6-9 in career Masters semi-finals.
Tsitsipas said his performance was sub-par on the day.
“I made wrong choices in the tiebreaker for sure. I was not serving so well, I could have put up more points in the breaker
“It was just one of those things, I could have done better.”
He added: “I like the way I’ve played this week.i won’t be blaming myself too much.”
Main photo:-Grigor Dimitrov celebrates as he wins semi-final
