Grigor Dimitrov on Thursday outlasted third seed Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-7 (5/7), 6-4, 6-3 to complete the quarter-final lineup at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna, Austria.
Dimitrov held serve throughout, but lost the opening set despite leading 5-0 in the tiebreaker.
“It’s never easy to come out of a situation like that,” Dimitrov said. “I kept on believing, I kept on doing the right things, stayed in the match, which was the most important thing.”
Photo: AFP
Dimitrov converted his second match point for his first career win over Tsitsipas, who had beaten the Bulgarian world No. 20 in the fourth round of the French Open earlier this month.
Dimitrov was due to face Daniel Evans, who came back from a break down in both sets to beat Austrian wild-card Jurij Rodionov 7-5, 6-3.
Earlier, Dominic Thiem beat Cristian Garin 6-3, 6-2 to set up a quarter-final against Andrey Rublev.
The defending champion, who is seeded second, wrapped up the win in just over an hour.
“It was a real good match, very solid from start to finish,” Thiem said.
Fifth seed Rublev, who is seeking his fifth tournament win of the season, led Jannik Sinner 2-1 in the opening set when the Italian player retired with a foot injury.
“[Rublev] has entered the top 10 last week and the way he is playing, I would say he is among the five best players in the world right now,” said Thiem, who trains with the world No. 8 regularly.
Fourth seed Daniil Medvedev also advanced after rallying to defeat Vasek Pospisil 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.
Medvedev was next due to face Kevin Anderson.
Lorenzo Sonego edged Hubert Hurkacz 7-6 (8/6), 7-6 (7/2) to set up a quarter-final against top seed and world No. 1 Novak Djokovic.
Meanwhile, German star Alexander Zverev on Thursday said that accusations by an ex-girlfriend that he had attacked her in New York last year were “simply not true.”
World No. 7 Zverev said that the claims made by Olga Sharypova that he tried to “strangle” her while at the US Open were “unfounded” and made him “very sad.”
Sharypova did not name Zverev in her social media post, but later confirmed to Russian media that she was referring to the German.
Sharypova claimed that her head was hit against a wall and that she was forced to flee a hotel barefoot.
“The unfounded accusations of my ex-girlfriend Olga Sharypova ... make me very sad,” said Zverev, who reached this year’s US Open final. “I very much regret that she makes such statements because the accusations are simply not true. We had a relationship, but it ended a long time ago. Why Olga is making these accusations now, I just don’t know. I really hope that the two of us will find a way to deal with each other again in a reasonable and respectful way.”
Zverev also revealed that he is to become a father with another former partner, Brenda Patea.
“The last few days were quite challenging for me,” he said.
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