Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta secured a big win today at the French Open. The twentieth seed knocked out eleventh seed Grigor Dimitrov in straight sets, 7-5, 6-3, 6-4
Dimitrov is not known for his exploits on clay. Despite his successful runs to the semi-finals at the Australian Open and Wimbledon in the past, his best effort at Roland Garros has been a third round appearance in 2013. The Bulgarian had lost in the tournament at the first round stage three times in a row before making the third round this year.
Carreno Busta is known for his clay success, and Dimitrov knowing that his opponent is strong on this surface, came out of the blocks firing. The eleventh seed won the first four games in a row. Carreno Busta managed to settle down though, and the Spaniard produced a remarkable comeback to win seven of the next eight games.
Dimitrov is known as player who plays with his emotions close to the edge, and the disappointing loss of the first set clearly weighed heavily on him. His backhand started to breakdown, and his movement seemed lethargic at times as Carreno Busta took control of the match by taking the second set with a single break of serve.
Carreno Busta worked with a professional attitude to ensure that he maintained the momentum. Dimitrov is a dangerous player and could quickly have turned the match around. However, he instead went down another break, and failed to make any serious inroads. Carreno Busta continued to earn errors from the backhand, and just such an errors from Dimitrov finished the match.
It is the first time that Carreno Busta has reached the Round of 16 in a grand slam, with his previous best efforts third round appearances at the Australian and US Opens.
Carreno Busta will next face Milos Raonic. The Canadian earned a retirement win after Guillermo Garcia-Lopez was hurt having lost the first set.
