Grigor Dimitrov held off David Goffin in a topsy-turvy United Cup clash on Saturday at RAC Arena in Perth. The Team Bulgaria playing captain showed grit to notch a vital 6-4, 7-5 triumph and tie his nation’s Group A clash with Team Belgium at 1-1.
Dimitrov kept his cool after Goffin reeled off three straight games to extinguish the Bulgarian’s early 4-1 lead in the first set, breaking for the second time in the set in the 10th game to move ahead.
After the pair exchanged breaks in the opening two games of the second set, the pivotal moments of the one-hour, 42-minute encounter came in the third game. Dimitrov dug deep in the face of some sharp Goffin returning to fend off six break points and hold serve, leaving the Belgian six-time ATP Tour titlist visibly frustrated.
Just as he had in the opening set, Dimitrov then made his move late to clinch the second set, and consequently the match. He took advantage of some loose groundstrokes from Goffin to break for 7-5 and seal a win in which he fired 10 aces and won 79 per cent (38/48) of points behind his first serve.
🇧🇬 @GrigorDimitrov takes the win in Perth and celebrates with the Bulgarian fans 🫶#UnitedCup pic.twitter.com/BVMkeNH36G
— United Cup (@UnitedCupTennis) December 31, 2022
The win extended former World No. 3 Dimitrov’s ATP Head2Head record against Goffin to 9-2. This was the pair’s first tour-level meeting since 2020, when Goffin edged the Bulgarian in three sets at another team event, the ATP Cup.
Dimitrov was pleased to get over the line and get his team on the board in their second match in Group A of the United Cup, particularly after he came close to upsetting World No. 4 Stefanos Tsitsipas on Thursday in his opening singles match in Perth.
“I’m pleased that I was able to sustain my level,” said Dimitrov in his on-court interview. ”Even though I felt I could play better tennis, but I was staying in the match, I was trying to work on the things that I’ve worked on in the off-season. I was just happy to play a good level.”
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Alison Van Uytvanck had earlier kicked off Belgium’s United Cup campaign with a hard-fought 6-1, 3-6, 6-2 win over Bulgaria’s Isabella Shinikova in one hour and 43 minutes.
Five-time Hologic WTA Tour titlist Van Uytvanck had entered as the favourite against No.381-ranked Shinikova and lived up to that status over a dominant first half-hour. She rattled through eight of the first 10 games, going up a break for 2-1 in the second set as Shinikova double faulted twice.
But Shinikova, who showed little sign of the leg injury that had beset her during a three-set defeat to Greece’s Despina Papamichail on Day 1, struck back in style. Introducing more variety into her game, the 31-year-old added subtle chips and drop shots to her aggressive tactics to turn the second set around.
Van Uytvanck’s error count increased from six to 20 as she struggled to adjust. Striking winners off both wings with real panache, Shinikova took five of the next six games to level the match and set her sights on a sixth career Top 100 win.
The start of the third set saw the highest level of tennis from both players, with Van Uytvanck conjuring a pinpoint lob winner off her toes in the first game and Shinikova scrambling up and down the court before finding a pass in the second. No.72-ranked Van Uytvanck reasserted her authority in the sixth game, coming up with a winning dropshot and taking advantage of two Shinikova double faults to break for 4-2.
That proved decisive. Van Uytvanck, now back in a groove on serve, closed out the win at the first time of asking, firing a forehand down the line on match point for her 31st winner of the day.
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