Three have challenged Rafael Nadal so far during this clay-court swing; three have bowed out in listless fashion. And that includes Nadal’s No. 1 clay-court rival from the 2017 season, Dominic Thiem.
Will Grigor Dimitrov fare any better? We will find out when Nadal and Dimitrov square off for the 12th time in their careers in the semifinals of the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters on Saturday afternoon. Nothing is more ominous for Dimitrov than the surface under his feet, but his head-to-head history against the Spaniard also does not bode well for his chances in this one. Nadal is a dominant 10-1 lifetime, including 3-0 on clay and 3-0 last season (all three of their 2017 meetings required final sets, but they were played on hard courts).
Looking at top seed’s Monte-Carlo record would only further demoralize Dimitrov before the underdog even takes the court. Nadal is a 10-time champion and has improved to 66-4 lifetime in the principality following beatdowns of Aljaz Bedene, Karen Khachanov, and Thiem. Bedene got four games, Khachanov managed five, and Thiem–a two-time French Open semifinalist–suffered a brutal 6-0, 6-2 defeat.
Dimitrov took a much different route to the semis, needing three sets to get past Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Philipp Kohlschreiber before coming back from a 5-1 second-set deficit against David Goffin to prevail 6-4, 7-6(5) on Friday. Goffin, Dimitrov’s doubles partner this week (they withdrew from their quarterfinal match later in the day), held three set points on his own serve before collapsing. The fifth-ranked Bulgarian had been 1-4 in his last five matches prior to arriving in Monte-Carlo, but he is now a respectable 14-6 for the season overall.
“I felt I did a lot of things better than the previous days,” Dimitrov commented after defeating Goffin. “I started the match better and I served better…. There were a lot of positives from today’s match. That’s all I can say.”
But it only gets tougher–and that’s an understatement.
“For sure he’s the favorite,” the fourth seed said of Nadal. “Yes, he has a great record. Yes, he’s the best player on clay. That definitely doesn’t discourage me. That excites me to get out on Saturday and play my match; simple as that. I think one of the wrong things you can do is really focus on his side. I always said that. Whoever you play, you always [have] to focus on your end, the way you structure yourself to go out and play, be creative on the court. That’s just how it is.”
Unfortunately for Dimitrov, nothing he brings to the table will have a real impact on Saturday’s outcome. If Nadal continues to play at or even near his current clay-court level, this will be over in two quick sets.
Pick: Nadal in 2 losing 5-7 games
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