No. 3 seed Grigor Dimitrov has reached the China Open quarter-finals. Bulgaria's Dimitrov edged world No. 24 Juan Martin del Potro in Beijing on Wednesday 7-6 (8-6) 7-5. It was a close match, which could have gone either way.
Argentina's del Potro broke world No. 8 Dimitrov in the opening game of the match. Dimitrov saved a break point chance in the third game before he broke back del Potro a couple of games later to make it 3-3. As no more breaks of serve were seen, the set went into a tie-break.
Dimitrov took a 5-4 tie-break lead after overturning an early 3-1 deficit.
Del Potro regrouped by winning the next two points to take a 6-5 lead. Dimitrov saved the Argentine's set point before he converted his first set point at 7-6 to take the opener. It took over an hour for the first set to come to an end.
Both players held on to their serves until the sixth game of the second set. Del Potro again broke Dimitrov first to take a 4-2 lead. Del Potro blew a 5-3 lead as Dimitrov won four games in a row to seal the win in style.
Dimitrov broke del Potro three times and saved 5-of-7 of the Argentine's break point chances during the match. Del Potro paid the price for being unable to capitalize on his leads. The match came to an end after exactly two hours of play.
The head-to-head record between the two now stands at 5-2 in del Potro's favor.
However, the last two matches went Dimitrov's way. Dimitrov, who was struggling to beat del Potro, defeated the Argentine for the first time this past August at the Cincinnati Masters.
Dimitrov plays Bautista Agut next
Dimitrov's next opponent at the China Open is set to be No. 5 seed Roberto Bautista Agut. Spain's Bautista Agut reached the quarter-finals after an Aljaz Bedene retirement.
Bautista Agut had a comfortable 6-0 4-0 lead when world No. 50 Bedene quit the match.
Bautista Agut converted his fifth break point in the second game to open up a 2-0 lead. Bautista Agut broke Bedene once again two games later for a 4-0 lead. The Spaniard saved a break point in the fifth game before he broke the Briton in the sixth game for a bagel.
Bedene blew two consecutive game points to make it 1-1 at the beginning of the second set. Bautista Agut broke Bedene twice to take a 4-0 lead. Bedene escaped a potential complete disaster by retiring during the fifth game.
Bautista Agut won 78 percent of his first serve points during the match. The No. 5 seed converted 5-of-8 of his break point chances against Bedene. The Spaniard made progress after just 51 minutes spent on the court on Wednesday.
Set to meet once again in Beijing
Dimitrov and Bautista Agut will be clashing off for the third time at the ATP level when they meet at the China Open. The head-to-head record between the two stands at 1-1. Bautista Agut beat Dimitrov in Beijing in 2013 before he lost to the Bulgarian at the 2014 Australian Open. Dimitrov also beat Bautista Agut at the Challenger event in Orleans in 2010.
