Grigor Dimitrov secured his spot in the quarter-finals of the final tournament of the year within the Masters 1000 series in Paris with a commanding victory over Alexander Bublik, defeating him 6-2, 6-2. The showdown at the "Bercy" hall lasted just over an hour.
The match began strongly in favor of our top-ranked player as Grigor quickly took a 3-0 lead after breaking Alexander Bublik's serve twice. While Bublik managed to recover one break, he surrendered his serve again towards the end of the first set, allowing Dimitrov to claim it. In the second set, the 32-year-old Haskovic native faced a break point in the second game but managed to hold on and then secured a break to lead 3-2. Grigor successfully defended against another break point from Bublik in the sixth game, and another break sealed the deal in his favor.
Dimitrov maintained a strong performance throughout the match, boasting a success rate of over 60% on both his first and second serves. He capitalized on two of the three break opportunities presented against his opponent and, in return, broke Bublik's serve five times. Although Grigor hit two fewer winners than the Kazakh, with 13 compared to Bublik's 15, he made eight fewer unforced errors, committing only 5 compared to Bublik's 13.
With this victory, our finest tennis player continued to shine in the French capital, where in the previous round, he defeated none other than the world's third-ranked player, Daniil Medvedev. This marks the second time Grigor has reached the quarter-finals in Paris, with his best finish being a semi-final appearance in 2019, where he was defeated by the eventual champion, Novak Djokovic. In the pursuit of a spot in this year's edition's final four, Dimitrov will face the winner of the match between Argentina's Francisco Cerundolo and the 11th-seeded Shanghai Masters champion, Hubert Hurkac. /BGNES
