By Chris Oddo | Wednesday February 15, 2017
Grigor Dimitrov battled past Mischa Zverev to claim his 15th win in 16 tries this season, 6-7(4), 6-2, 6-4, to set up a second-round encounter with Denis Istomin at the ABN Amro Open in Rotterdam.
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Dimitrov, who has won titles in Brisbane and Sofia already this season, had to come from behind to take out the talented southpaw Zverev. The German grabbed the first set after saving three break points to get to a tiebreaker then opening up a 5-1 lead at the changeover in the breaker.
Dimitrov would rally back to 5-4, but Zverev took the final two points to grab the set.
In the second set, Dimitrov continued to manage his serve effectively and eventually broke through for 3-2 with a crisp backhand down-the-line return winner.
He would hold and execute the same shot to break for 5-2 before serving the set out to draw level at a set apiece.
Dimitrov finished with 11 aces on the day and won an impressive 13 of 23 second-serve points.
After two sets point Dimitrov had still not faced a break point in the match but he had to save one to level for 2-all in set three before he broke in the next game for a 3-2 lead.
Zverev quickly struck back, converting his fifth break point of the sixth game to level at 3-all.
But Dimitrov stayed on message and used his backhand yet again to generate another break for a 4-3 lead. He would hold in the next two games, sealing his victory in one hour and 54 minutes with a backhand crosscourt winner.
Faced with the net-rushing tactics of Zverev all match, Dimitrov was extremely effective when he shortened the backswing on the backhand side. He was able to strike many clean winners with that shot and he kept Zverev guessing all match.
In other first-round action early on Wednesday in Rotterdam, No.3-seeded David Goffin took out Andrey Kuznetsov, 6-3, 6-2, while Richard Gasquet eased past Viktor Troicki, 6-4, 6-2.
In second-round action defending champion Martin Klizan moved past Philipp Kohlschreiber, 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-1, while qualifier Pierre Hugues-Herbert knocked off fellow qualifier Evgeny Donskoy, 6-2, 7-6(4).