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Grigor Dimitrov advanced to his third semi-final of 2024 after overcoming Alexander Shevchenko of Kazakhstan at the tournament in Rotterdam - 7-6 (2), 3-6, 6-4, in just over two hours of play.
Already in the first set, Shevchenko, 57th in the world ranking, clearly demonstrated that he will not be just a sparring partner of Bulgaria's best tennis player and showed that it was no accident that he defeated the third seeded Holger Rune in the previous round. After a dominant display from the servers, Grigor took the lead in the tiebreak and won it with 7-2 points. At the beginning of the second set, however, the Bulgarian's first serve was broken. Dimitrov had two break points in the ninth game, but Shevchenko held on and converted his fifth set point. In the decisive third set, the two were again very solid on serve, before it came down to the tenth game, in which the Kazakh lost his serve to zero, and with that he conceded the match.
Shevchenko made twice as many aces as his opponent, who also had an advantage in winners, but in the end the 32-year-old from Haskovo was jubilant for his third semi-final of the year out of four tournaments – Dimitrov failed to reach at least the last four only at the Australian Open, where he lost early to Nuno Borges.
So far, Bulgaria's tennis player has a title in Brisbane and a lost final in Marseille, where he was defeated by Ugo Humbert. Now in contention for a place in the third final, he will play the winner of the match between Alex De Minaur (5) and Andrey Rublev (2). /BGNES
