Grigor Dimitrov starts his Beijing campaign with a straight-set win over lucky loser Tennys Sandgren.
The Bulgarian was meant to face his friend Ryan Harrison in the 1st round, but the American had to pull out because of a back injury.
Grigor had to work harder than expected against the world no. 59 before beating him 7-5 6-3. The Bulgarian was leading without much trouble in the first set 5-2 before being broken in the 9th game. Eventually, Grigor found his way to break the American in the 12 the game and win the opener 7-5 in 43 minutes. The second set was much smoother for the Bulgarian after he conquered the first 3 games.
It’s never easy playing someone for the 1st time. DIMITROV
This was the first time that Grigor played Sandgren. Grigor commented
“It’s never easy when you’ve never played against a guy. So I think it took me quite a few games to kind of get in a rhythm, see what kind of game plan he had [and] just try to get comfortable in the match. I think the first set was obviously the tough set. After that, I kind of picked up my pace a little bit more, I started playing a little bit more aggressive. I think, also, I was moving well.”
Next vs. Lajovic
Grigor will face the world no.55 Dusan Lajovic in the next round. The head to head is 1-0 for Grigor.
STRONG
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