Dimitrov To Face Goffin In Rotterdam SFs

Grigor Dimitrov was solid on serve on Friday as he booked his place in the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament semi-finals where he will meet his good friend and hitting partner David Goffin. It will be the first time the pair has met since the title match at the 2017 Nitto ATP Finals, which Dimitrov won for the biggest trophy of his career.

Dimitrov booked his place with a victory over 20-year-old Russian Andrey Rublev 6-3, 6-4 in 77 minutes on Friday. The World No. 5 lost just eight of his first-service points (37/45) and hit 12 aces. He broke Rublev’s serve for a 3-1 lead in the first set and at 3-3 in the second set.

Earlier in the day, fourth seed and last year’s runner-up Goffin reached an ATP World Tour semi-final for the second straight week (also Open Sud de France in Montpellier) when sixth seed Tomas Berdych, the 2014 champion, pulled out ahead of their quarter-final due to illness. The Czech has been under the weather since Tuesday.

Goffin beat Dimitrov in last year’s quarter-finals at the Rotterdam Ahoy, venue of the ATP World Tour 500 tournament.

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Marach/Pavic Still Perfect In 2018
Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic remain unbeaten in 2018, extending their winning streak to 16 matches with a place in the Rotterdam doubles semi-finals. The second-seeded Austrian-Croatian pair swept past Damir Dzumhur and Filip Krajinovic 6-1, 6-1 in 44 minutes to set up a meeting against fourth seeds and 2015 champions Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau.

Marach and Pavic has won three straight titles at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open in Doha (d. Murray/Soares), the ASB Classic in Auckland (d. Mirnyi/Oswald) and the Australian Open (d. Cabal/Farah).