Grigor Dimitrov Shocks Roger Federer and Advances to the US Open Semis

Grigor Dimitrov eliminated Roger Federer from the US Open. The Bulgarian player defeated FedEx in the quarterfinals after 190 minutes of playing, and one hell of a match with 3-6, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2.

After seeing the champion Novak Djokovic exiting the tournament, this is by far the biggest surprise at Flushing Meadows this year.

The epic fight at Arthur Ashe stadium was thrilling for the fans, and we might say that it has been the best match at the entire tournament so far.

Federer lost because of his physical condition, as his 38 years were simply too much against Dimitrov. One of the best of all times was experiencing several problems during the contest, and even had to ask for a medical timeout, which is something he never does.

FedEx stated after the match that he problems in the area between his neck and shoulders, which was preventing him from making some moves.

“Just needed to try to loosen it up, crack it and see if it was going to be better,” Federer said. “But this is Grigor’s moment and not my body’s moment, so… it’s okay.”

The Swiss legend revealed that first signs of a potential problem appeared earlier yesterday. Yet at that the time he believed that it would go away, or at least decrease.

While he had power and the situation with his injury wasn’t that bad, Federer was playing solid. There were some unusual moments in his game, but in general, he had the advantage over Dimitrov.

He took the first set by breaking Dimitrov only once, but slowed down in the second. At one point, Federer was down 5-2, before coming back to 5-4 and serving to equalize. However, the Bulgarian player broke Federer’s serve and leveled the score in the sets to one each.

During the third set, the veteran looked ok, taking the rival’s service two times, but as soon as that part of the event ended, it was obvious that his pace decreased a lot. Dimitrov won one breakpoint early on and held on to that until the end.

In between the sets, Federer asked for a medical timeout, and once he got back to the court, it was evident that he can’t compete with Dimitrov. He was having troubles while serving, hitting a forehand, and was definitely out of the match mentally.

Dimitrov noticed that and used his chance.

“My main goal was to stay on the court as long as possible. At the end, for sure he was not 100 percent. It’s best of five and anything can happen,” said Grigor.

This was his third win over Federer in their 18 matches and the first one after seven straight losses. At the moment he is climbing up the world ranking list pretty fast, and it is almost sure that his position there will be much higher than 78 where he sits now.

“I think the past six, seven months, have been pretty rough for me.” Dimitrov said. “Next thing you know, you’re almost [at the] end of the year, you have a result like that. It’s pretty special to me.”

He progressed to the semis, where he faces Daniil Medvedev, who has been playing excellent ever since the start of the US Open tour. The Russian eliminated Stanislas Wawrinka in the quarterfinals, and despite his quadriceps injury reached the final four. The result was 7-6 (6), 6-3, 3-6, 6-1

Since Wimbledon, Medvedev’s record is 19-2, and the Russian player is by far in the best shape here. The only thing which might slow him down are those injuries, as he used pain killers against Wawrinka to survive the match.

The contest between the two is scheduled for Friday.