Kevin Anderson and Grigor Dimitrov deliver impressive wins at Erste Bank Open

Kevin Anderson (Marian 2, Wikimedia Commons)

The quarterfinalists have been determined at the 2020 Erste Bank Open in Vienna, Austria. In the second round, there were two very intriguing matches that were won by South Africa’s Kevin Anderson and Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov. Anderson defeated Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain 7-5, 6-1, and Dimitrov defeated third seed Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece, 6-7, 6-4, 6-3.

Anderson, who had knee surgery in February for a torn meniscus, is currently ranked 111th in the world despite being a two-time grand slam singles finalist (2017 U.S. Open and 2018 Wimbledon). It has been a tough 2020 tennis season for Anderson as prior to the Erste Bank Open, he only won six matches.

However, Anderson delivered with an outstanding performance on Wednesday. Anderson’s serve was the difference. He had 14 aces compared to Carreno Busta’s one. Anderson also won 90% of his first serve points and broke Carreno Busta, the two-time U.S. Open semifinalist four times.

In Friday’s quarterfinal match, Anderson will be involved in the most intriguing matchup as well. He will be up against Russia’s Daniil Medvedev, the 2019 U.S. Open finalist. Despite being two veterans on the ATP Tour, this will be their first head-to-head meeting.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, Dimitrov, the 20th ranked player in the world, won a battle of grand slam singles semifinalists. Dimitrov has reached the final four at the 2014 Wimbledon, 2017 Australian Open, and 2019 U.S. Open. Tsitsipas has reached the semifinals of the 2019 Australian Open and 2020 French Open.

What was most impressive with Dimitrov’s second round win was his mental toughness. In the first set, Dimitrov was leading Tsitsipas 5-0 in the tiebreak before losing 7-5. However, despite losing seven consecutive points at a crucial stage, Dimitrov came back to win the next two sets.

Dimitrov will now face Daniel Evans of Great Britain in the quarterfinals. The other quarterfinal matchups have Dominic Thiem of Austria against Andrey Rublev of Russia, and Novak Djokovic of Serbia against Lorenzo Sonego of Italy.

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