Dimitrov Downs Kyrgios For 1st Masters Title at Cincinnati

by Staff | August 20th, 2017, 11:31 pm
  • 12 Comments

Grigor Dimitrov won his first Masters 1000 title on Sunday in Cincinnati, defeating Australia’s Nick Kyrgios 6-3, 7-5 to claim the Western & Southern Open championship.

It was a match-up of two first-time Masters finalists, slugging it out of the for their biggest career title. But some strong serving and play from Dimitrov plus three double faults from Kyrgios to give a break were the difference.

“I’m just happy and I’m humbled to have that trophy in my hands, and especially to win here, my first Masters 1000,” said the 26-year-old Bulgarian who didn’t drop serve in his last three matches.


It was Dimitrov’s third title of the year, matching his career-best 2014 when he won three.

Dimitrov did not drop a set all week becoming the first Cincinnati winner to do that since Roger Federer in 2015.

“Going to the [US] Open, it’s for sure a lot of positivity with it, but the most important thing now is just to stay grounded, keep on doing the same work, believe in myself, and just prepare the best way that I can for the Open,” Dimitrov said.

Kyrgios was a question mark entering the week after withdrawing or retiring from several events with hip and shoulder injuries.

Dimitrov improved to 3-0 in finals this year and 7-5 career. Kyrgios was looking for his first title of the season and fell to 3-2 in career finals.

Kyrgios, who had battled hip and shoulder issues during the summer, says fitness made the difference.

“I was struggling a couple of weeks ago and he got me out on the practice court. We practiced for an hour-and-a-half and I was struggling and he was fresh,” Kyrgios said. “You had me mentally today already. I was like, ‘I know this guy’s fitter than me.'”

Dimitrov is the fourth different Masters champion of the season and he joins a list of 11 other active players to have won at this level.

The tournament, however, was marred by withdrawals and injuries as just of the Top 10 players began.

Dimitrov will head to the US Open as the No. 7 seed, Kyrgios the 15 after his best career Masters result.


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12 Comments for Dimitrov Downs Kyrgios For 1st Masters Title at Cincinnati

Margot Says:

Really pleased for Gorgeous Grig! At long, long last. Hope this is a huge confidence boost. C’mon lost gen!

August 21st, 2017 at 1:41 am


Giles Says:

https://twitter.com/genny_ss/status/899545621094436865
Well done Grigor, congratulations
Here are some appreciative words of the time he spent with Rafa.

August 21st, 2017 at 5:22 am


rognadfan Says:

Looks like the baby finally, grew up!.
Though I wanted him to win, I thought he would falter yet again. But kudos to Dimi; he dispatched the ‘gambler’ bad boy pretty nicely.

I say NK a gambler because he does gambles in every critical point. Doing so every now and then is definitely necessary and sometimes that one gamble works wonders. But every single time, you are behind or you face break point, that’s not the recipe for continued success.
Afterall, now one in the history of mankind has had a winning record on repeated gambling!

August 21st, 2017 at 9:39 am


Tennis Vagabond Says:

rognadfan, I agree. Kyrgios makes weird decisions. It’s small scale stuff, but at this level, you can’t just throw away a half dozen points in a match and not have it catch up to you.

Anyway, to the main point: There were something like 6 or 7 non-Big Four Masters winners in the past 8 years. Now we’ve had two in a row. Some fans will argue that this doesn’t mean the Big 4 are done, as 3 of them were missing in Cincy. Actually, I think that itself is part of the argument that the era IS changing. A new generation doesn’t always emerge beating the top guys straight up. They may simply fill the vacuum of injury and age.

I wonder if the middle aged guys, Raonic and Dmitrov especially, are going to snag a Slam in this transitional period, while Zverev, Thiem, Shapovalov are getting stronger?

The biggest, most immediate question is, how much star power will be missing, or dimmed, from the US Open? Novak and Stan are out. Cilic, Murray, Raonic and Fed are all planning on playing, but could still drop out, or come in severely hampered.

A year ago, this would have left us really starved for good competition, but this year the ‘lesser lights’ (Zverev, Thiem, Kyrgios, Dmitrov) have given us reason to care and follow them as potential champs.

Another question is over Rafa: what is with the late season drop-offs? How can the guy dominate hard courts in January and the spring, and then become such a middle of the pack guy in August? If he comes in at the level of Montreal and Cincinnati, the vacuum at the top is just huge.

We could have all non-BF semifinalists.

August 21st, 2017 at 10:38 am


rognadfan Says:

TV, I agree on the new generations simply filling in. Like we saw in Cincy and Montreal where big guns were missing. I remember Thiem saying, that beating one BF is not difficult but beating 2,or 3 of them is next to impossible. That’s exactly what happened in the last 2 masters. They only had to beat one of the Big 4 not 2 or more. Had all 4 been playing, they would’ve had to beat at least 2 for sure.
Hence we saw 2 consecutive non big 4 masters 1000 winners (actually its 3 consecutive 1000, zverev won Rome;.
How many time did it happen since 2004. I am pretty certain less than 5 times in the last 13 years.)

On Rafa, that’s been the trend for the last 3 years. May be he is just exhausted by this time of the year. May be it’s time he starts skipping some Masters tournaments in the spring. (One or 2 clay and Miami would give him enough rest. I think). He’s going to have to let go the tournaments, he is almost certain to win though.

August 21st, 2017 at 11:22 am


ronp Says:

Where’s the search tool for this web site? Struggling to find the headline story about Nadal reascending to number one ranking.

August 21st, 2017 at 11:38 am


RZ Says:

With all the withdrawals and early losses, this was a huge opportunity for someone to step up and nab a title. Nice to see Dmitrov backing up his good start to the year to get this title. He’s part of a small group of current players to hold a Masters title.

August 21st, 2017 at 12:05 pm


RZ Says:

Note to Racket Bracket players – I plan to have the ATP racket bracket for the US Open up later this week. The draw comes out on Friday, so I will try to get it ready on Friday, though it may be Saturday.

August 21st, 2017 at 12:08 pm


Margot Says:

Cheers RZ.

August 21st, 2017 at 12:25 pm


Daniel Says:

TV,

Correctio, just because Nadal made finals in AO and Miami didn’t mean he dominates HC ealy in the season. He lost several finals in those tournaments before to better HC players on the day: 3 AO finals and 5 Miami finals.

The guy doesn’t win a single HC title in more than 3 and a half years, there is a reason to it and people expect him to win just on his name and abscence of other elite players. we have to face it, Nadal on HC this last 3 years is nothing impressive, pretty beatbale in almost every match he plays bar a few exceptions (gasquet et all).

Considering that in this part of the season he already has more than 50 matches played, he is 31, fast HC season, mental aspect as back in his mind he knows his chances narrows; all these adds to his results.

Mentioned before, USO is a golden oportunity for him to win possible a final non clay Slam due to format, easy ealry rounds. 2 players who beat him in HC Slams finals are out. Murray also has win on HC Slams over him and they could only face in finals. Also Murray recovering from injury and time off.

But even so, he can dran a kyrgios, Isner, Querrey in Round 16, all potential difuct matche sin NY.
Federer is the real treat to him, with 3 wins this season. I think I may be downgrading his injury, but I don’t think he will be much bother in USO. Unless the injury is really bad. Back injurys recover fast (just some time off), althoug they can flare up at any point, and come and go. But don’t see Federer not playing USO, only if he is stiff as a wall.

Nadal will struggle almost every match from now on, bar a few first rounds. Don’t know if he’ll play Beijing (that could be an easier touney as Djoko and few regulars will be missing, more soften draw there), but next Masters hard to see him playing finals.

August 21st, 2017 at 12:58 pm


Daniel Says:

Also is a matter of perspective, for Nadal, so far it worked, he got the bulk of his points in clay and went deep in AO and Miami (slower courst, although this Ao was fast). It got him the #1 ranking. Now for him, whatever happesn is a bonus. He will try USO again and WTF, which will have a bucn of first timers and Fed on the other group, unless Murray has a super run again to be #1 or #2 between them.

For Federer it also worked, he skipped clay and got wimbledon which was the main goal. Now he is just 220 pts behind Nadla in race, and the only factor he wasn~t couintg was getting injured in Montreal final. He will still cbe in contention for #1 ranking till the very end of the season.

Only scenario really bad for Federer is if he bombs USO before QF and Nadal wins it. Than Nadal will open a 2000 pts margin that can pretty much secure him the Year End #1 with some solid results rest of the year.

August 21st, 2017 at 1:23 pm


skeezer Says:

Nadal is not going to win USO. Too many guys nowadays can beat him. He’ll need the imaginary t4t “cupcake draw” to have any chance.

August 21st, 2017 at 1:40 pm

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