Dimitrov upsets Nadal to reach China Open semifinals

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

The world No. 20’s two donations of serve right away hardly mattered because he broke Nadal three straight times out of the gate. There was not a single service hold until Dimitrov finally took care of business for a 4-2 lead. He earned another scalp of the Nadal serve for 5-2 and just one break of his opponent’s serve to begin the second was enough to get the job done.

“I’m pretty happy with that win,” Dimitrov commented. “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.”

“It’s obvious that Grigor played much better than me and he deserved to win,” Nadal assessed. “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 world No. 4’s next tournament, and his next chance to improve his position in the race to the World Tour Finals, is next week’s Shanghai Masters. Nadal will still rise from No. 8 to seventh in the 2016 standings on Monday because Dominic Theim fell in the Beijing opening round to Alexander Zverev. Thiem will have 3,205 race points to Nadal’s 3,290.

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