Fourth seed Grigor Dimitrov avoided the fate of so many other seeds in the early rounds in Delray Beach, as he defeated Damir Dzumhur 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 for a place in the quarter-finals.
The unseeded Bosnian pushed the former Top 10 player Dimitrov close, winning a tight first set by successfully attacking the Bulgarian’s second serve. It was a highly erratic display from both men, as the match featured eleven breaks of serve from two players with good serving records. Dimitrov in particular will be disappointed with his serving, but showed a level character not always associated with his game to tough out the win despite playing poorly at times. Dimitrov would again give Dzumhur two breaks in the second, but earned three of his own, before breaking Dzumhur twice in third. The Bosnian could only break back once, and Dimitrov would earn the come-back win.
Dimitrov now faces the only other surviving seeded player from the bottom section of the draw in Adrian Mannarino, after he won against Tatusma Ito. Dimitrov and Mannarino have never met before on tour. With the loss of Kevin Anderson, Bernard Tomic, and Ivo Karlovic, Dimitrov by ranking at least, is now the favourite to win the title, and will certainly be favourite to at least make the final should he defeat Mannarino.
