site.btaTennis Player Grigor Dimitrov Beats World No. 5 to Reach Miami Final, Secures Return to Top 10

Bulgaria's highest ranked tennis player Grigor Dimitrov Saturday won 6-4 6-7(4) 6-4 over world No. 5 Alexander Zverev to reach the final in the ATP Masters tournament in Miami. The victory guarantees that he will return to top 10 of the world rankings on Monday for the first time since November 2018. The gap of 260 weeks between his Top 10 standings is the third-longest in the history of the rankings.

In his 20th top 5 win, Dimitrov showed consistency throughout the whole match, scoring a total of 44 winners against 25 for Zverev. The German was on a seven-match win streak against the Bulgarian, with the only previous victory for Dimitrov coming in 2014 when his opponent was 17 years old. 

This is also the first tournament since 2017, in which the Bulgarian beats multiple top 5 players and records three consecutive top 10 wins. 

In the battle for the trophy, he will meet world No. 3 Jannik Sinner, who is the only other player to reach 3 finals in 2024 and the only player with more wins that Dimitrov this year (21 vs 20). The Italian won two of his three previous matches against the Bulgarian. 

"Clearly, he is the best player [in the world] right now, in my opinion. He has been playing absolutely outstanding tennis," Dimitrov said about Sinner in a post-match interview for Tennis Channel on Saturday. "Now I have to compete against him. I like these matches, I want to test myself. It is a final. It is one of those matches where I have to focus on my side of the net. He has shown what he is capable of doing, so have I. It can easily be a very interesting match."

This will be Dimitrov's third ATP Masters final. He won the title in Cincinnati in 2017 and lost to Novak Djokovic in Paris last year. Even if he loses, he will move up to No. 9 in the world, while a win will see him rise to No. 7.