Alejandro Davidovich Fokina is through to his maiden ATP 1000 final after winning a dramatic match over Grigor Dimitrov 6-4 6-7(2) 6-3.
Alejandro Davidovich Fokina played his 1st round match against Marcos Giron last Sunday and 7 days later on the same day, he will contest his maiden ATP Masters final. It comes after a week of stellar tennis where he bested great player after great player. He took down Novak Djokovic, he proved better than Taylor Fritz and today he was better than Grigor Dimitrov.
From the start of the match, it was obvious that the Spaniard had more energy. He was flying on the court whereas his opponent was simply not that sharp. Dimitrov was a bit late on many balls and a lot of his shots flew out of the court. A 1-3 early deficit proved too difficult to battle back and Fokina sealed the first set with 6-4.
Things started off better for the Bulgarian in the 2nd set as he was able to take a 2-0 lead against a sloppy Fokina. Yes, despite his great play the Spaniard does tend to play sloppy at times. Realizing the dangers of his attitude, Fokina quickly readjusted and went on a 4-0 run to take a 4-2 lead. He arrived at 5-4 with a chance to serve it out but played a sloppy game once more giving Dimitrov a chance.
He took it in the tiebreak which he won with 7-2. He continued playing well at the start of the 3rd taking a 2-0 lead with Fokina looking lost. After holding a huge game where he saved break points for 1-2 Fokina broke Dimitrov once more to get back into the match. The sloppy match by both ended with Fokina winning the final set with 6-3.
22yo Alejandro Davidovich Fokina blows a 5-3 lead in the 2nd set but then comes back from a break down in the 3rd and beats Grigor Dimitrov 6-4, 6-7(2), 6-3 to reach his first career ATP final in Monte Carlo. He had one top 100 win in 2022 before this week. Quite a story.
