Carlos Alcaraz's winning run came to an end in dramatic style against Grigor Dimitrov at the Miami Open.
The Spaniard came into the tournament on the back of winning the title in Indian Wells for the second time. This was his first title since his famous triumph in the Wimbledon final against Novak Djokovic last year.
Alcaraz eased past Lorenzo Musetti in the previous round. Despite the impressive run he was on, the world No. 2 is still not the finished article. For instance, it is clear Alcaraz's serve is not at the same level as Roger Federer's was.
Dimitrov always had the potential to cause issues for the 20 year old. The Bulgarian beat Alcaraz in their previous meeting in Shanghai in October of last year. Nonetheless, a second win in a row for Dimitrov still came as a surprise to most.
The beginning of the match was very chaotic but fiercely entertaining. There were break point opportunities in the opening four games of the contest. Dimitrov began by holding serve after being down a break point.
The 32 year old then broke after some impressive aggressive hitting off his forehand. That was followed by two games of exceptional quality from both players with many winners hit, but each man held after more break points.
However, Alcaraz started to make an uncharacteristic number of unforced errors. This was particularly evident at 5-2 to Dimitrov, when a very loose service game handed the Bulgarian the set 6-2.
After a calmer first three games of the second set, Alcaraz played his worst game of the match at 2-1 to give Dimitrov another break, with his usually formidable forehand leaking far too many errors for a match of this level.
Alcaraz saved a break point at 4-1 to hold, and it seemed like he could mount a comeback when Dimitrov played his first bad game of the match to get broken in the next game to love.
But the veteran kept his composure outstandingly with some sublime hitting at 4-4 to curb Alcaraz's momentum and put the pressure back on him to hold serve to stay in the match at 5-4.
This was a task that Alcaraz could not manage. A string of unforced errors saw Alcaraz get broken once again and Dimitrov sealed a memorable and deserved 6-2 6-4 triumph, He will face Alexander Zverev in the semifinal.
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