Bulgarian fourth seed Grigor Dimitrov reached his first Monte Carlo Masters semi-final with a hard-fought win over Belgium’s David Goffin.

Dimitrov, 26, won 6-4 7-6 (7-5) against sixth seed Goffin, who was leading 5-1 in the second set.

Spain’s world number one Rafael Nadal takes on Austrian third seed Dominic Thiem with the winner playing Dimitrov.

The other quarter-finals see Marin Cilic playing Kei Nishikori, while Alex Zverev faces Richard Gasquet.

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Dimitrov and Goffin, who will return to the court later on Friday as partners in the quarter-finals of the doubles, were playing for the first time since the Belgian suffered a freak eye injury during their match in Rotterdam earlier this year.

As a result 27-year-old Goffin is still wearing a special contact lens while playing, but it was his nerves which appeared to be the problem as he closed in on the second set.

Goffin failed to convert three set points on his own serve, tightening up as Dimitrov fought back to break twice to force a tie-break.

Dimitrov, ranked fifth in the world, clinched victory with his second match point as Goffin failed to avenge his defeat in the ATP World Tour finals last year.

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