Dimitrov Scrapes Past Johnson In Los Cabos

Grigor Dimitrov ended a four-match losing streak and improved to 12-12 on Tuesday by grinding out a 7-6(4), 4-6, 7-6(5) win against American Steve Johnson at the Abierto de Tenis Mifel presentado por Cinemex.

Dimitrov broke in the sixth game of the third set with a forehand winner up the line and saw a match point come and go at 5-3, 40/30. But the 2017 Nitto ATP Finals champion recovered in the tie-break, nailing a diving volley winner to bring up his second match point.

Dimitrov now leads his FedEx ATP Head2Head series with Johnson 5-2 and will face second seed Guido Pella for a place in the ATP 250 quarter-finals.

Argentine Juan Ignacio Londero had beaten Chile's Cristian Garin only two times in their seven non tour-level meetings. But Londero is 1-0 against Garin at tour-level, having upset the sixth seed 3-6, 6-2, 6-3. Londero will next face South Korean qualifier Soonwoo Kwon, who sped past Germany's Cedrik-Marcel Stebe, last week's Gstaad finalist, 6-2, 6-1.

Seventh seed Radu Albot ran away with his first-round match against Serbian Janko Tipsarevic 7-5, 2-6, 6-0 and will face Taro Daniel of Japan for a spot in the quarter-finals. Daniel routed American Tennys Sandgren 6-2, 6-0 in 63 minutes.

Brit Cameron Norrie set up a second-round meeting with Kazakhstan's Mikhail Kukushkin by beating Frenchman Gregoire Barrere 7-6(5), 6-0.

from Tennis - ATP World Tour https://ift.tt/2Yd1e1P