Emotional win for Dimitrov

Grigor Dimitrov received a standing ovation at Queen's after beating Kevin Anderson
16 June 2012

Grigor Dimitrov wept with joy as he reached his first ATP Tour semi-final after beating ninth seed Kevin Anderson at the AEGON Championships.

Dimitrov withstood serves of up to 135mph from the big South African to record a 4-6 6-4 6-3 win at Queen's. The 21-year-old Bulgarian received a standing ovation for his victory on centre court and cried tears of joy before sharing a warm embrace with his father Dimitar, who first handed him a racquet at the age of three.

"I got a couple of tears," the world number 72 said. "It was a good moment and I wanted to share it with the people that I love."

He added: "My father was here, and I think it was a big moment for him too.

"It was for me, but I think it was more for him because of all that we have been through together.

"It was great and after I just wanted to thank him. It was an awesome experience for us."

Anderson clinched the first set with a crucial break but, after a rain delay at the start of the second, Dimitrov became more composed and started to reel off some of the ground strokes that have seen him branded 'Baby Fed' due to comparisons between his game and that of Roger Federer.

Anderson had no answer to Dimitrov's mobility and placement, although he did admit to struggling against the might of his 6ft 8in opponent at times.

"You need a dozen of everything to beat him," Dimitrov said.

"He's one of the biggest servers I've ever played."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in