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July 6, 2017 By  ATP, Featured, Wimbledon

Grigor Dimitrov vs Dudi Sela: When Tennis Turns Into… Diving!

Let’s be honest: probably, when thinking about the best Round 3 match-ups of this year’s Wimbledon, one wouldn’t include Grigor Dimitrov vs Dudi Sela. There are a bunch of reasons: there are more relevant matches, i.e. Andy Murray facing Fabio Fognini, Novak Djokovic against Ernests Gulbis–who surprisingly eased past Juan Martin Del Potro earlier today–or many others. Maybe, Dudi Sela is not considered to be one of the most watchable players on tour, or maybe someone would think that it wouldn’t be such a fought match, with Dimitrov being the heavy favorite.

 

Fair enough. Though, despite of all the reasons listed above, there’s one reason why one should definitely not miss this match. Indeed, in their recent matches, both players proved to be spectacular, and that they can play in a way that really justify the price spent to buy the ticket! Both Dimitrov and Sela showed excellent skills in what is the best form of show that a player can put on in a grass court match: tennis-diving!

 

As Tom Daley in an Olympic race, both players lit up the enthusiasm of the fans in two occasions, raising expectations for the upcoming match to the sky. As far as the Bulgarian is concerned, he closed his Round 2 match here against Marcos Baghdatis in the best possible way. After a tremendous forehand inside-out, his opponent was able to fire a passing shot; Dimitrov then dived to reach the ball and he eventually hit a winner, finishing the match lying on the ground smiling.

His Israelis opponent was able to do exactly the same a couple of the tournaments ago, during the final of the ATP Challenger in Nottingham against Thomas Fabbiano–a final he eventually won. Already up a break in the third deciding set, Sela earned a second break diving to hit a winning volley, stirring up crowd’s applause!

Hence, the main question regarding this match shouldn’t be “Who is going to win it and make it to second week?”, but instead “Who is going to hit the best diving winner?”. In order to answer this, one should definitely watch it. Don’t miss it, it promises to be marvelous!

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About Filippo Colombo

I study Economics for Arts, Culture and Communication, speak on a radio twice a week and watch a lot of tennis.

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