Grigor Dimitrov advanced to the third round of the high-profile Masters 1000 tournament in Miami after a hard-fought Alejandro Tabilo 6-7 (5), 7-6 (5), 6-2 in exactly two and a half hours of play.
The Chilean, ranked 44th in the world, played a strong first set in which he served admirably and did not give a break point to the Bulgarian. For his part, Grigor saved three break points in the eighth game. In the end, it came to a tiebreak, in which Tabilo showed a more solid game and after 7-5 points pulled in the result. In the second set, the South American saved three break points in the sixth game, and in the tiebreak he started strongly and led 3-0 and 5-2. However, Bulgaria's best tennis player showed character and won five unanswered points to even the score. This seemed to discourage the Chilean and Grigor started the decisive third set with a break and then made another to seal his place in the next phase of the tournament.
Dimitrov served great, finishing with 23 aces - five more than his opponent. He dropped just eight points on first serve, saved all three break points against Tabilo and finished with 44 winners and 12 unforced errors.
The Bulgarian has a match with Yannick Hanfmann from Germany, who eliminated the 19th ranked Adrian Mannarino. If successful over Hanfmann, Dimitrov will certainly play with a seeded player in the round of 16 - one of Sebastian Korda (28) or Hubert Hurkacz (8). /BGNES
