Sat, Nov 21 2009

Bulgarian teenager Dimitrov qualifies for second round at Queen's

Tue, Jun 09 2009 13:15 CET byAlex Bivol 1141 Views
Bulgarian teenager Dimitrov qualifies for second round at Queen's

Grigor Dimitrov

Photo: "Градски вестник"

Bulgaria's top-ranked tennis player, Grigor Dimitrov, qualified for the second round of the Aegon Championship at Queen's Club in London after defeating Spaniard Ivan Navarro 6-4, 4-6, 6-3.

Dimitrov, who is world number 361, took one hour and 36 minutes to defeat his opponent, ranked 82ng in the ATP Tour rankings. His second-round opponent will be Frenchman Gilles Simon, seeded third in London and ranked seventh in the world.

It will be the second meeting between the two. Dimitrov lost the dramatic encounter at the Open 13 tournament in Marseille in February, despite leading 5-2 in the final set.

Dimitrov was given a wild card by the tournament's organisers. The 18-year-old Bulgarian also has a wild card for Wimbledon by virtue of winning last year's junior championship. To avoid distractions during his preparation, Dimitrov has pulled out of Bulgaria's Davis Cup squad, which will play Latvia in the second round of the Europe/Africa region Group 2 on July 10-12.

The rest of the first round saw four-time winner Lleyton Hewitt of Australia breeze through, winning 6-1, 6-0 against Argentinian Eduardo Schwank.

Home crowd favourite Andy Murray, seeded first in the absence of defending champion Rafael Nadal, will play his first match against Italian Andreas Seppi in the second round.

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The Guardian: Grigor Dimitrov is the new Roger Federer

During his success at the 2009 ABN AMRO in Rotterdam, Dimitrov and Peter Lundgren met the former coach of Marat Safin and Roger Federer. Since, Lundgren has been the Bulgarian's mentor, and he maintains "he is better than Federer was at his age"

Rafael Nadal a major doubt for Wimbledon

Rafael Nadal, who withdrew on June 5 from the grass-court tournament at Queen’s Club due to a knee injury, might not be able to defend his Wimbledon title

Dimitrov's stunning performance in Marseilles ends short of upset

Grigor Dimitrov's brilliant performance won him the respect of the crowd despite losing to Gilles Simon

Nadal pushed to the limit by Dimitrov in Rotterdam

Bulgaria's Grigor Dimitrov was two break points away from winning against world number one Rafael Nadal

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