{"id":76863,"date":"2024-03-29T17:42:07","date_gmt":"2024-03-29T17:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/dimitrov-stuns-alcaraz-to-book-zverev-miami-semi-final-the-express-tribune\/"},"modified":"2024-03-29T17:42:07","modified_gmt":"2024-03-29T17:42:07","slug":"dimitrov-stuns-alcaraz-to-book-zverev-miami-semi-final-the-express-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/dimitrov-stuns-alcaraz-to-book-zverev-miami-semi-final-the-express-tribune\/","title":{"rendered":"Dimitrov stuns Alcaraz to book Zverev Miami semi-final | The Express Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\nMIAMI:
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

World number two Carlos Alcaraz<\/a> was knocked out of the Miami Open quarter-finals on Thursday, beaten 6-2, 6-4 by Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov.<\/p>\n

Dimitrov played sparkling and energetic tennis to beat the Spanish top seed and will now face Germany’s Alexander Zverev for a place in the final.<\/p>\n

Germany’s Zverev held off rising Hungarian Fabian Marozsan 6-3, 7-5 to book his place in the semis.<\/p>\n

Jannik Sinner and Daniil Medvedev<\/a> will play in the other semi-final — a rematch of the Australian Open final won by Sinner in January.<\/p>\n

Alcaraz came into Miami on the back of his title in Indian Wells and with his sights set on the “Sunshine Double”.<\/p>\n

But from the outset, Dimitrov, who also beat Alcaraz in the fourth round in Shanghai, showed no fear as he attacked Alcaraz and broke early to take a 3-0 lead.<\/p>\n

The Bulgarian pounced on every opportunity, coming to the net frequently and moving Alcaraz around the court.<\/p>\n

He looked to be on his way to a comfortable two-set victory after he broke the Spaniard in the fourth game and then held for a 4-1 lead.<\/p>\n

But Alcaraz was not about to roll over, breaking back to go 4-3 after smashing a cross-court winner at the end of an entertaining rally.<\/p>\n

With the match back on serve, a tie-break seemed inevitable. But with Alcaraz serving to stay in the match, Dimitrov broke him when the Spaniard went wide and Dimitrov’s arms went high in the air in celebration.<\/p>\n

“In order to win against him, you have to play at your best. That’s just how it is,” said Dimitrov.<\/p>\n

“I came into the match very focused and I think extremely clear on what I had to do. Sometimes simplicity is genius. It’s very, very hard to do it, especially when you play against an opponent like that. But I was able to really dictate the game,<\/p>\n

“Honestly, it was a very, very great match on my end. And I’m just happy I finished it straight sets for once,” he joked.<\/p>\n

Alcaraz conceded he just had no answer to Dimitrov’s brilliant performance.<\/p>\n

“I have a lot of frustrations right now, because he made me feel like I’m 13 years old. You know, it was crazy,” Alcaraz said.<\/p>\n

“I was talking to my team saying that I don’t know what I have to do. I don’t know, you know, his weakness. I don’t know anything. That’s why I have frustration right now.”<\/p>\n

Alcaraz said that he thought he had played better than in his loss to the Bulgarian in Shanghai in October.<\/p>\n

“In China I made more mistakes, in the first, second ball, than today. I think he played even better today. He played great. I couldn’t find solutions in today’s match. His game was perfect,” he said.<\/p>\n

World number five Zverev knew he had to be wary of Marozsan, ranked 57th but heading into the top 40 having claimed two top-10 victories in this tournament beating Holger Rune and Alex de Minaur.<\/p>\n

But the Hungarian struggled to cope with Zverev’s big serve in the opening set and couldn’t find his rhythm.<\/p>\n

There was little to choose between the pair in the second set, with the Hungarian keeping the pressure on Zverev.<\/p>\n

But Marozsan missed some crucial points late in the set when going to the net and in the end was broken in his final service game.<\/p>\n

Zverev was delighted to have the chance to return to the final.<\/p>\n

“I mean, I love Miami, I always said that, obviously I’m happy to be back at these kind of late stages of these tournaments, playing the best players in the world. I think there’s only those left and I’m looking forward to the challenge,” he said.<\/p>\n

The German was full of praise for his opponent, predicting he will continue to climb higher in the rankings.<\/p>\n

“If he continues playing like that, he’s going to rise up the rankings very quickly and he’s going to be one of those guys himself,” he said.<\/p>\n

“He always rushes us good players. All the top players, when they’re in control, they feel like they can manage the match, manipulate the match a little bit in their own favor and against him that’s not possible.<\/p>\n

“So I think that’s why he has such a great top-10 record. He’s an unbelievable player.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MIAMI: World number two Carlos Alcaraz was knocked out of the Miami Open quarter-finals on Thursday, beaten 6-2, 6-4 by Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov. Dimitrov played sparkling and energetic tennis to beat the Spanish top seed and will now face Germany’s Alexander Zverev for a place in the final. Germany’s Zverev held off rising Hungarian Fabian […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76864,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.tribune.com.pk\/media\/images\/WhatsApp-Image-2024-03-29-at-4-14-19-PM1711711067-0\/WhatsApp-Image-2024-03-29-at-4-14-19-PM1711711067-0.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t