GRIGOR DIMITROV BEATS RAFA IN BEIJING TENNIS, RAFAEL NADAL BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD FOR BARCLAYS WORLD TOUR FINALS

Written by: Staff on 7th October 2016

GRIGOR DIMITROV BEATS RAFA IN BEIJING TENNIS, RAFAEL NADAL BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD FOR BARCLAYS WORLD TOUR FINALS

epa05574997 Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria reacts after defeating Rafael Nadal of Spain in their men's quarter final match of the China Open tennis tournament at the National Tennis Center in Beijing, China, 07 October 2016. EPA/ROLEX DELA PENA |

By Ricky Dimon

Grigor Dimitrov upset Rafael Nadal 6-2, 6-4 in the quarterfinals of the China Open on Friday night. Dimitrov dropped his first two service games of the match but never got broken again as he advanced after one hour and 33 minutes.

The Bulgarian’s two donations of serve right off the bat hardly mattered because he broke Nadal on three straight occasions out of the gate. There was not a single service hold until Dimitrov finally took care of business for a 4-2 advantage. He broke again for 5-2 and just one break of his opponent’s serve to begin the second set was enough to get the job done.

“I’m pretty happy with that win,” Dimitrov assured. “I’m not going to lie. I’ve played Rafa quite a few times. So many times I was close or a couple times I was cramping; there was just always something happening. Today I just played an excellent match–simple as that. There’s not much else to say except that I’m proud. A lot of the work is paying off.”

Rafael Nadal of Spain reacts during his men’s quarter final match against Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria at the China Open tennis tournament at the National Tennis Center in Beijing, China, 07 October 2016. EPA/ROLEX DELA PENA

“It’s obvious that Grigor played much better than me and he deserved to win,” Nadal admitted. “Losing five [service] games is something you can’t do to win a match like this. I fought until the last ball, but was going against psychologically bad feelings because I was suffering with my serve. When that happens, you have to go to the next tournament because you don’t deserve to win like this.”

The Spaniard’s next tournament, and his next chance to boost his standing in the race to the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, is next week’s Shanghai Rolex Masters. Nadal will still climb from No. 8 to No. 7 in the 2016 standings on Monday because Dominic Theim lost in the Beijing first round to Alexander Zverev. Thiem will have 3,205 race points to Nadal’s 3,290.

As for Dimitrov, he moves on to a semifinal showdown against Milos Raonic on Saturday. They have not squared off since the 2014 Australian Open, where Dimitrov prevailed 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(10) to take a 2-1 lead in the head-to-head series.

The world No. 20 preceded his win over Nadal with three-set defeats of Steve Johnson and Lucas Pouille. Raonic has advanced this week with straight-set victories over Florian Mayer, Malek Jaziri, and Pablo Carreno Busta.

Saturday’s other semifinal will pit Andy Murray against David Ferrer for the 20th time in their careers. Murray leads the head-to-head series 13-6, including 11-2 on hard courts and 6-0 in their last six meetings dating back to Vienna in the fall of 2014. The world No. 2 has won 14 of their last 16 sets after most recently scoring a 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-2, 6-3 victory in the quarterfinals of this season’s Australian Open.

Murray is 58-9 for the year following straight-set wins this week over Andreas Seppi, Andrey Kuznetsov, and Kyle Edmund. Ferrer booked his spot in the semifinals by beating Pablo Cuevas, Fabio Fognini, and recent St. Petersburg champion Alexander Zverev.

Ricky contributes to 10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand.

Andy Murray of Britain in action against his compatriot Kyle Edmund during their men’s quarter final match of the China Open tennis tournament at the National Tennis Center in Beijing, China 07 October 2016. EPA/ROLEX DELA PENA

Topics: 10sballs.com, Andy Murray, Atp World Tour, Beijing Tennis, China Open, David Ferrer, GRIGOR DIMITROV, milos raonic, Rafa Nadal, Ricky Dimon, Sports, Tennis News

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10sBalls_com says:

October 7, 2016 at 1:04 pm

-@GrigorDimitrov Beats Rafa In #BeijingOpen #Tennis, #Nadal Back To The Drawing Board For Barclays #WorldTourFinals… https://t.co/kP5dCuJfBS