ATP Finals | Grigor Dimitrov thrashes David Goffin; Dominic Thiem battles past Carreno Busta

SportsCafe Desk

BySportsCafe Desk, SportsCafe Editor

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Grigor Dimitrov, who defeated Dominic Thiem in three sets in his Pete Sampras group opener, has reached the semi-finals of the ATP Finals with a 6-0, 6-2 win over David Goffin. Dominic Thiem boosted his chances of making his first appearance in the semi-final after beating Carreno Busta.

Dimitrov didn’t give his opponent a whiff as he unloaded 18 winners to defeat the Belgian World No.8 at London’s O2 Arena and seal his spot in the last four with one match to play. Dimitrov has already made history as he became the first Bulgarian to qualify for the season-ending Tour finals. The injury forced Rafael Nadal to withdrawal, and in his absence, Federer is the title favorite but Dimitrov has a chance of becoming the first debutant winner since Alex Corretha in 1998 to win the year ending finale. 

Dimitrov had won three of his four previous meetings with Goffin and he was quick to establish control once again. During the match, Dimitrov was dominating from the baseline while Goffin was unable to find any sort of rhythm. After breaking the Belgian in all three games in the first set, it was only a matter of time before he secured his berth in the semi-final of the event. Goffin will now have to beat Thiem in the final game to join Federer and Dimitrov in the final four of the competition.

In another match, Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta made his Tour Finals debut against Thiem after replacing the injured Nadal. But he failed to register a win in the match as Thiem handed him a 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 loss at the O2 Arena. Thiem’s powerful groundstrokes were enough to beat the Carreno Busta which helped him record his second career win at the ATP Finals. Thiem went 1-2 last year in his debut appearance at the finals.

The fourth seeded Thiem had won all four of their previous encounters going into the game. Despite coming in for the injured Nadal, World No. 10 Carreno Busta looked very much like a player who deserved to be at the tournament. In the opening set, Thiem broke twice to take the early lead. The 26-year-old debutant from Spain stole momentum early in the second, breaking in the third game and then again in the ninth game. In a back-and-forth third set, Thiem was the last to grab momentum, breaking for a 5-4 lead and serving out the match.

The world No. 4 now has one win and a loss in London and now will play for a chance to reach the semi-finals on Friday against seventh seed David Goffin, who is also now at 1-1 after losing to Dimitrov.

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