Grigor Dimitrov beat Nicolas Jarry 7-6 (7-2) 6-4 in 1 hour and 39 minutes at the Qizhong Forest Sports Centre to reach the semifinals of the Shanghai Rolex Masters for the first time in his career.
Dimitrov had clinched the biggest win of the season by beating world number 2 Carlos Alcaraz in the fourth round of the Shanghai Masters 1000 tournament, but trailed 0-2 in his previous two head-to-head matches against Jarry.
Both players went on serve with no break points en route to the tie-break. Dimitrov earned two mini-breaks to cruise through to a 7-2 win in the tie-break.
The Bulgarian player earned his first break on his third opportunity in the seventh game of the second ste to take a 4-3 lead. Jarry dropped his serve for the second time in the whole tournament.
Dimitrov dropped just four points on his first serve and made just three unforced errors.
Dimitrov has reached his fifth ATP Tour semifinal of the season. He is aiming to win the second Masters 1000 title of his career following his triumph in Cincinnati 2017. He won his first match against a top 5 rival since 2021 against Carlos Alcaraz on Wednesday.
Dimitrov has reached the semifinals at seven of the nine Masters 1000 tournaments.
“I think there were many opponents going the right way today. For me, he is one of the best servers right now. I have played a couple of times, and I feel like every time it gets tougher and tougher to return against him. In the most important moments, I was able to be just solid. I don’t think I did anything crazy in those moments. I just kept on believing in my game, kept going after my shots. You don’t get many opportunities against him, especially in the beginning it’s very difficult because he does not give you any rhythm. I was trying to apply pressure with the hope that he might make a few mistakes. Beating Alcaraz helps confidence-wise, but also it was just another match, if you think about it. I did not have much time to overthink it. I just had a little bit of chat with the team and tried to see what I did pretty good, what worked, what didn’t, and what I could do better in the next round”, said Dimitrov.
