Grigor Dimitrov mastered his opening hurdle in a relaxed manner at the French Open. The Bulgarian won against the Egyptian Mohamed Safwat 6:1, 6:4, 7:6 (1).
Originally Dimitrov should have started into the tournament against Viktor Troicki. But 40 minutes before the game began, Roland Garros officials announced that the Serb had withdrawn. Back pain made it impossible for Troicki, who already had to give up at the Masters in Rome.
“About 20 minutes before the match I met Viktor in the dressing room,” said Dimitrov. “He wished me good luck and I no longer understood the world.”
Safwat was the Lucky Loser and the first Egyptian in over 20 years to move into the main field of a Grand Slam tournament. Tamer El Sawy had previously competed at the US Open in 1996.
Dimitrov did justice to his role as favourite early in the match, after only 22 minutes he secured set one. Ten of the first eleven games went to 27-year-old Dimitrov.
In the middle of the second movement Safwat was treated by the physios. The 27-year-old also had to fight with blisters on his right hand and therefore took a medical time-out of several minutes.
Shortly thereafter, however, he managed to annoy Dimitrov increasingly: The world’s number four made some mistakes and had to give up three games in a row after a 4-0 lead. But Dimitrov didn’t let go of the second break, he served for a 2-0 set lead after just over two hours.
In the third round the world’s number 182 kept up for a long time, in a balanced set it went into the tiebreak. Safwat made three unforced mistakes in a row early on, Dimitrov turned his first match point after just over two hours.
Safwat, who often trains in Vienna with his coach Martin Spöttl and the Austrian former Davis Cup captain Gilbert Schaller, lost in two sets to the Argentinian Guido Andreozzi in the qualifying final on Friday. He was already the seventh male player to make it into the main draw in Paris this year as Lucky Loser.
In the second round Dimitrov will now face the winner of the duel between Nicolas Jarry from Chile and Jared Donaldson from the USA. The first opponent to be seeded in the third round would be Fernando Verdasco.
Dimitrov has never reached the second week of the French Open in his career. The best results for the 2013 and 2017 seasons are a third round each.
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