Dimitrov goes down in Vienna, Cilic crashes out of Basel

The only thing shorter than Grigor Dimitrov’s hair was his stay in Vienna.

Sporting a new buzz cut (or hair loss), Dimitrov lost his opening match to Mikhail Kukushkin 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 at the Erste Bank Open on Wednesday. The 10th-ranked Bulgarian double-faulted a disastrous 11 times before succumbing in two hours and 23 minutes.

“It was a really tough match today,” Kukushkin assessed. “I would say Grigor did not play his best tennis today, for sure, but still he is a really tough opponent to beat. There were a lot of games where I had an opportunity to break him, a lot of break-point chances that I didn’t use. When you have so many opportunities and don’t use them, [you often] lose the match. So I’m pretty happy with my performance.”

The upset bug also hit at the Swiss Indoors Basel, where Marius Copil surprised No. 2 seed 7-5, 7-6(2) to reach the quarterfinals. Copil, who had to qualify for the main draw, fired a daunting 21 aces in the two sets without double-faulting a single time.

“I played the last three matches really good,” the Romanian said when asked it this was unexpected. “I felt confident. I know at the end of the year I’m also playing well because I love to play indoors; it’s my favorite surface. I know with my serve I can do some damage. I’m really happy to be here in the quarterfinals and I hope I can keep on going.”

In order to keep going he will have to beat Taylor Fritz on Friday. Fritz advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6-2, 7-5 victory over fellow wild card Henri Laaksonen.

“I know him really well; he’s a good kid,” Copil said of Fritz. “He plays really well; he’s also in form right now. We’re both playing well. I think it will be an entertaining match.”

Fritz’s fellow American Jack Sock did not fare as well on Wednesday. An ice-cold Sock fell to Ernests Gulbis for the second time in six days, this time via a 7-5, 6-4 decision. Gulbis had previously defeated Sock at last week’s Intrum Stockholm Open quarterfinals.

At one point in this latest showdown, Sock told Gulbis to “play by the rules” after the Latvian was called for a time violation while fiddling with his strings before Sock served.

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