Grigor Dimitrov gave the US Open crowd a shocker as he went past the crowd favourite Federer in five sets, 3-6, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2, to reach the Semi-final
Dimitrov, ranked 78th, came back after losing the first set where he lost the first service game and Federer held on to win the first set 6-3. After some intense battle, Dimitrov managed to break Federer in the sixth game to go 4-2 up and was serving 5-3 before losing the serve to Federer but broke back to win the set 6-4.
Federer seemed like he got back the control when he cruised to win the third set but Dimitrov broke Federer early in the fourth and a series of errors from the racquet of Federer gave Dimitrov the fourth set. In fact, Federer had five break points when Dimitrov was serving for the fourth set. Federer couldn’t convert any of them and Dimitrov won the fourth set.
Right before the fifth set, Federer had an off-court treatment and wasn’t 100% during the fifth set. As the unforced errors bulged from Federer, Dimitrov took advantage of the third seed to go past him for the first time in his career in eight meetings.
Dimitrov now becomes the lower-ranked player at 78 to win against Federer at the US Open. Earlier, it was number 55th ranked Millman.
Federer follows Osaka and Djokovic (retired) to exit from the US Open. The third-seed said that he had an upper back problem that started the afternoon but he doesn’t want to dwell on it. “This is Grigor’s moment and not my body’s moment,” he said.
Dimitrov now will meet the entertaining Medvedev who went past Wawrinka in four sets.
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