Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov became the first player to advance to the men’s semifinals at the Miami Open, staving off a match point to defeat Argentina’s Francisco Cerundolo 6-7 (6), 6-4, 7-6 (3) on Wednesday.
Next up for Dimitrov, the 14th seed, will be the winner of the Thursday quarterfinal match between fourth-seeded Novak Djokovic of Serbia and 24th-seeded Sebastian Korda, a Florida native. The latter contest was scheduled to have been played late Wednesday night, but it was postponed when the last women’s match went to a third set.
Cerundolo, seeded 23rd, had a match point at 5-6 in the third set but couldn’t convert. Dimitrov took that game, then won the first three points of the tiebreaker and rolled to the finish.
Earlier, Dimitrov was the one ruing missed chances. He had four set points at 4-5 in the opening set, then two more in the tiebreaker before Cerundolo prevailed.
Dimitrov changed the momentum by breaking serve in the first game of the second set, and neither player had another break point in that set.
Earlier on Wednesday, No. 17 seed Arthur Fils delivered 25 winners and overcame back pain to deliver a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 upset of top-seeded Alexander Zverev on Wednesday to reach the quarterfinals.
The 20-year-old Frenchman recovered from the first-set loss to defeat Zverev for the second time in the past three meetings.
Fils said he has been dealing with fierce back pain and persevered after digging the early hole.
“In the first set, I was not playing great,” said Fils, who had four aces. “I found a way today, I was so lucky late in the match.”
After losing the opening set, Fils jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the second en route to evening the match.
Zverev took a 3-1 lead in the third set before Fils won the next four games. After Zverev won the next game, Fils closed out the match.
“In the third set I thought it was over, at 1-3 and with him serving great,” Fils said. “I just said, ‘OK, don’t get mad. Just try to play as much as you can and try to fight, and if you get a break, it’s nice.’ It happened, so what can I say.”
Zverev had nine aces but the German finished with just 14 winners.
Fils will face Jakub Mensik of the Czech Republic in the quarterfinals on Thursday. Third-seeded Taylor Fritz of the United States will oppose 29th-seeded Matteo Berrettini of Italy.
–Field Level Media
