MATCH REPORT | 2023 Paris Masters: Grigor DIMITROV first into final after three set battle against Stefanos TSITSIPAS

Grigor Dimitrov will contest the final of the 2023 Paris Masters on Sunday after seeing off Stefanos Tsitsipas in the semi-finals on Saturday afternoon.

Dimitrov will face either Novak Djokovic or Andrey Rublev who will face off shortly in Paris-Bercy for a spot in the final. It was a three set win 6-3, 6-7, 7-6 for the Bulgarian.

A year that has seen a renaissance for Dimitrov, the same can be said recently for Tsitsipas who achieved his mission of qualifying again for the ATP Finals and after some time in the tennis wilderness, he has reached four semi-finals in a row.

For some time, his relationship with Paula Badosa did more of the talking than his racquet, but he is back in a great place and can leave Paris with his head held high.

It was a dominant start for Dimitrov in the contest as he swept the opening set 6-3. His serve in particular was utterly stunning. He served 10 times and failed to face a break point. The irony was that the only time he was broken was by Tsitsipas in the tiebreak of the second set as the Greek took a dominant 7-1 tiebreak win to make it 1-1 in sets.

The closeness of the match was in full effect again as despite Dimitrov having four break points against him, that was the only time at 2-1 up all set that either went close to breaking the others serve.

Who would blink first. Well it was Tsitsipas as Dimitrov took it to a deciding set tie-break. He blasted into an incredible 5-0 lead as he looked to get off the court as soon as possible as he couldn't in the previous set.

He did do just that but only after spurning a match point initially but at 6-3 after surrendering his serve on the second match point, he broke with the final serve on Tsitsipas' racquet to seal the win. Superb from the Bulgarian and he is the king of the one-handed backhand in this instance.