Dimitrov Beats Fellow Nitto ATP Finals Contender

Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov further strengthened his bid for a place at the Nitto ATP Finals on Thursday by reaching the Shanghai Rolex Masters quarter-finals at the expense of American Sam Querrey, another contender for next month’s season finale.

Sixth seed Dimitrov recorded his 40th match win of a career-best year (40-16 overall) with a 6-3, 7-6(3) victory over No. 10 seed Querrey in 81 minutes at the Qi Zhong Stadium in Shanghai. He will next challenge top seed and 2009 finalist Rafael Nadal or Fabio Fognini of Italy in Friday’s quarter-finals.

Dimitrov is currently at No. 5 in the Emirates ATP Race To London with 3,455 points, and is now 270 points behind fourth-placed Austrian Dominic Thiem (3,725). Querrey remains at No. 11 with 2,525 points. Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Alexander Zverev have already clinched three of the eight berths at the Nitto ATP Finals, to be held at The O2 in London from 12-19 November.

The 26-year-old Dimitrov broke Querrey in the fourth game of the pair’s third FedEx ATP Head2Head series (3-0), but could not convert three set point opportunities on the American’s serve at 5-3. Querrey took a 2-0 lead in the second set, but was immediately pinned back and there were no further chances to break through to the tie-break.

Dimitrov has won three ATP World Tour titles in 2017 at the Brisbane International presented by Suncorp (d. Nishikori), Garanti Koza Sofia Open (d. Goffin) and the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati (d. Kyrgios).

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