The day before the match even began, Grigor Dimitrov started the journey to triumph in the Miami Open presented by Itau quarterfinal match against Carlos Alcaraz by looking for the footage of their last meeting.
The Bulgarian said, “I was about to press play, and I stopped.”
He overcame the Spaniard in straight sets on Thursday to go to the ATP Masters 1000 tournament semifinals for the first time in his career, proving that having less preparation paid well.
It would have been easy for Dimitrov to succumb to the temptation of reliving his victory over Alcaraz, the No. 2 player in the PIF ATP Rankings, six months ago in Shanghai. Rather, as he stepped onto the court at Hard Rock Stadium, he chose to calm down and follow his gut.
“I persuaded myself that since every match is unique, there was no reason to watch it. The weather and the courts are different, the World No. 12 stated. “I didn’t want to just throw the ball in play and watch what he did; instead, I wanted to come onto the court with a blank slate and start from the very beginning.
“I was simple enough to grow as the match went on; I just tried to hurt him whenever I got the chance.”
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The 32-year-old Dimitrov has updated the appearance of his Lexus ATP Head2Head series against Alcaraz. He has now won the previous two meetings in their rivalry after losing his first three matches against the Murcia native, all in straight sets.
Moreover, he spent just one hour and thirty-two minutes on the court during his victory on Thursday. In 2024, no one else had defeated Alcaraz so rapidly (in completed matches). The only other Masters 1000 loss for the Spaniard that lasted less time was his one-hour, seventeen-minute setback to Rafael Nadal in Madrid in 2021. The Bulgarian’s performance was so outstanding that Alcaraz later told the media he felt “like I was 13 years old.”
So, did Dimitrov have any other tricks up his sleeve that allowed him to produce such a feat? Yes — he practised less than at other tournaments.
“I barely trained in the last two or three days because the conditions are very different during the day. Sometimes this tournament has been kind to me, others it has not. My relationship with this event has been very interesting,” said the Bulgarian, who had never progressed past the fourth round in Miami before this year.
“You always try to focus on what works. Now I’m trying something different, and now I feel like ‘OK; I’m finally doing something well’, and I’m sticking with it, while still being as professional as possible. After playing for many years, you learn a few thing
