Andy Murray won nine of 10 games to start and overwhelmed Grigor Dimitrov 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 at the US Open on Monday night.
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Elsewhere, Swiss star Stanislas Wawrinka saw off Ukraine’s Illya Marchenko 6-4 6-1 6-7 (5-7) 6-3 while Argentina’s Juan Martin Del Potro led Dominic Thiem 6-3 3-2 when the Austrian retired with a knee injury.
Shortly after his four-set victory over Portugal’s Joao Sousa, Grigor Dimitrov sat down with the press to discuss the victory that equalled his career-best finish at the U.S. Open, what he feels has changed on the North American hard courts after a dismal season, and what he expects from his fourth-round clash against three-time major champion, Andy Murray.
Wawrinka, a former Australian and French Open champion, reached a fourth successive quarter-final in NY with a hard-fought 6-4, 6-1, 6-7 (5/7), 6-3 win over Illya Marchenko, the world No 63 from Ukraine.
Dimitrov hardly put up a fight as Murray cruised to a 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 victory in NY.
Nishikori, the 2014 runner-up, won 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (4) on Monday in the last singles match at the current Louis Armstrong Stadium, which will be torn down after the tournament.
Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov returns the ball to France’s Gilles Simon during the Monte-Carlo ATP Masters Series Tournament, on April 12, 2016 in Monaco. “I’m just disappointed with the amount of errors I made”. For sure I was a little bit overwhelmed to get out there, you know, playing that prime time match. I have a different game.
“You know, if it’s on the bike or the Versaclimber, I really want to push myself and beat them”.
He even was credited with one serve at 141 miles per hour, which he said would be the first of his career that topped 140.
Both hold serve just over 83% of the time and break serve 26.4% of the time and 25.7% of the time respectively and this one could be a real battle on what to me is not a particularly quick court on Ashe.
“Today, that type of a match that I played really smart on the big points, I played good when I had to”.
He clinched the match when Dimitrov slammed a forehand into the tramlines.
A brief rain delay only kept Murray at bay for a few minutes and he returned to complete a dominant victory.
“I think a lot has changed over the past year and a half for me”.
If Dimitrov can gel a strong serve and his all around game, he will challenge Murray, but it’s hard to see him getting over the line. Andy right now is the best player out there.
At the Toronto Masters, he reached the last-eight, losing to Kei Nishikori.
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After initially going toe-to-toe with Murray in the opening games, Dimitrov lost his way and continued to look out-of-sorts as the match progressed.
