Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria beat Nick Kyrgios of Australia 7-6 6-3 at the World Tennis League in Dubai on Wednesday. Dimitrov was representing Team Falcons, while Kyrgios was playing for Team Eagles.
Dimitrov had earlier replaced Novak Djokovic of Serbia, who was initially supposed to play the match, but was not fit enough to start.
Two keys to Grigor Dimitrov’s win over Nick Kyrgios at the World Tennis League
#1 Kyrgios targeted Dimitrov’s backhand in a closely contested first set:
Kyrgios attacked Dimitrov’s backhand from the beginning, but the Bulgarian responded by defending well and also playing a number of backhand slices. Kyrgios also rushed the net frequently, but Dimitrov’s defense held firm.
Neither of the players could break each other’s serve in the first set, as it went into a tie-break. It was the 31-year-old Bulgarian who once again managed to stand out and emerge victorious in the first set.
#2 Kyrgios made quite a few errors in the second set, as Dimitrov got a couple of breaks:
Dimitrov went around his backhand frequently in the second set and kept hitting inside-out forehands, which forced the Australian to play off his backhand. As a result, Kyrgios was no longer able to dominate rallies with his forehand. However, Dimitrov often had enough time to defend on a surface that was on the slower side.
The 27-year-old Australian tried to play his forehands with a lot of power, but his tendency to overpress led to a number of unforced errors. Dimitrov took advantage of that and broke Kyrgios to go 5-3 ahead.
The Australian was again broken in what turned out to be the final game of the match to hand the Bulgarian a comfortable win. The Falcons thus eventually managed to edge out the Eagles 36-33 to win the World Tennis League.
Main Photo from Getty.
