Nicolas Jarry of Chile beat fourth seed Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria 7-6 6-1 in the Geneva Open final on Saturday. It was the 27-year-old Chilean’s third career ATP singles title, as he continues his improvement that will make him a threat at the ensuing French Open.
The match lasted for an hour and 36 minutes, as Dimitrov surrendered rather meekly in the second set after having fought well in the first.
Nicolas Jarry had too much power for Dimitrov:
Jarry exhibited a lot of power in his strokes in the final. His blistering serve and formidable forehand tested Dimitrov’s defense from the beginning. However, to his credit, the 32-year-old Bulgarian also held his own in the baseline slugfest in the first set.
Jarry was particularly lethal from the ad court, as his inside-out forehands kept pushing Dimitrov to the latter’s backhand corner. Jarry then finished a few points off by hitting his inside-in forehand for a winner through the open court.
The Chilean hit a lot of winners off his forehand and broke Dimitrov in the fourth game of the match to go 3-1 up. However, Dimitrov broke back in the seventh game and then held serve to level the score at 4-4.
The first set went into a tie-break that Jarry won at a canter, allowing the Bulgarian to win only a point in it.
Dimitrov’s resistance broke in the second set:
Dimitrov’s game fell apart in the second set, as he was visibly tired and could not match the Chilean stroke for stroke. The Bulgarian tried playing his crosscourt backhand slice quite a few times in the match, but Jarry responded with an equally good slice off his backhand on most of those occasions.
At times, the Chilean approached the net just after hitting the slice to take Dimitrov by surprise. Jarry broke Dimitrov in the second game of the second set and then again in the fourth one, as the latter hit his volley into the net on break point.
Jarry then went on to serve the match out in the seventh game of the set, thereby stamping his class.
Main Photo Credit: Zoe Meyers/The Desert Sun/USAToday Sports
