Grigor Dimitrov and Karen Khachanov played an epic match at the 2024 Marseille Open, with the Bulgarian winning in three sets.
This was a fantastic match between two players who are playing really strong tennis right now. Dimitrov has been playing at a consistently high level for a while now and already has one trophy to his name.
The Bulgarian won the Brisbane event earlier this year and will now have a chance to add another one to his name. When it comes to Khachanov, he's always hovered around a solid level but somehow never quite gets it done.
This match is the perfect example of a match he could have won but ultimately didn't, as his opponent proved to be too strong. The opening set saw the Russian play really strong tennis to start, but then he completely fell apart in the game, which he served for the set.
Eventually, it ended up in a tiebreak, which he still won after some amazing rallies. At the start of the second set, Dimitrov used Khachanov's weaker game to break, and that was everything he really needed.
From there, the Bulgarian focused on his serve and cruised to an easy second-set win. With every game, Dimitrov looked better, and at the start of the final set, Dimitrov was clearly better.
He cruised through his games easily while applying solid pressure on Khachanov. The serve saved him a couple of times, and then the script flipped. It was Khachanov who was looking impressive as he cruised to a tie-break while Dimitrov struggled.
The tie-break opened better for Khachanov, who had a mini break but then made two unforced errors to throw it away. He got a net tip bounce on match point to give himself another chance but then sent a forehand wide to lose the match.
Dimitrov won 6-7(3), 6-4, 7-6(5) to reach his second final of the season, in which he will take on home player, and the fourth seed, Ugo Humbert.
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