Dimitrov beats top seed Alcaraz in straight sets in Miami quarterfinals

Eleventh-seeded Grigor Dimitrov came out strong versus top-seeded Carlos Alcaraz on Thursday night and won 6-2, 6-4 in the Miami Open quarterfinals, his first victory over a top-five player in nearly five years.

Fourth-seeded Alexander Zverev, who defeated unseeded Fabian Marozsan 6-3, 7-5, will play Dimitrov in the semifinals Friday. Second-seeded Jannik Sinner will face No. 3 Daniil Medvedev in the other semifinal, a rematch of last year’s final that Medvedev won.

Alcaraz, the 2022 champion, entered this tournament off a victory over Medvedev at Indian Wells. But the world’s second-ranked player had trouble finding his game versus Dimitrov and became visibly frustrated numerous times in the first set.

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Alcaraz, however, didn’t go away even after falling behind a break at 4-2 in the second set.

He broke Dimitrov at love and then held serve to even the set at 4. But then Dimitrov won the final two games, breaking Alcaraz in the clincher.

This was Dimitrov’s first triumph over a top-five player since he defeated then-No. 3 Roger Federer in the quarterfinals of the 2019 US Open.

In the earlier match, Zverev attacked Marozsan’s serve and converted three of his seven break point chances, swatted aside the two break points he faced and won 80% of his first serve points en route to the last four in Miami, where he has yet to drop a set.

Despite not dropping a set in windy conditions, Zverev had his hands full with Marozsan, who is making his Miami debut and enjoyed top-10 upsets over Holger Rune and Alex de Minaur on the way to the quarterfinals.

“If he continues playing like that he’s going to rise up the rankings very quickly and he’s going to be one of those [top 10] guys himself,” Zverev said in his on-court interview.

“When we are in control, I think all top players when they are in control they feel like they can manage the match, manipulate the match a little bit in their own favor.

“But against him that’s not possible. That’s why he has such a great top-10 record and he’s an unbelievable player.” Zverev’s victory, sealed with a break when he unleashed a brilliant backhand down the line, marked his return to the Miami Open semifinals for the first time since his runner-up finish in 2018.

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