Paris Masters: Dimitrov survives French crowd, Rinderknech, to keep Turin dream alive

Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov, the No 8 seed, advanced to the last eight of Paris Masters by edging out French wildcard Arthur Rinderknech 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (5) at the Accor Arena on Thursday night.

As expected, it was a vocal Court Central as the French fans looked to will one of their own through to the quarter-finals, in the aftermath of Ugo Humbert upsetting Carlos Alcaraz earlier in the day.

They nearly did so as well, with Rinderknech coming within two points of victory, leading 5-3 in the deciding tiebreak at one stage before Dimitrov locked down and won the final four points to book his place in the final eight.

It was another brilliant serving day from the Frenchman that allowed him to push world No 9 Dimitrov so hard, with Rinderknech serving up 13 aces, zero double faults, and making 67 percent of first serves.

Dimitrov was even better on his serve, however, with 17 aces and 47 of 51 points won on first serve.

With the win, Dimitrov keeps his hopes of qualifying for the ATP Finals alive. He currently sits No 10 in the Race to Turin with 3,340 points heading into his quarter-final against Karen Khachanov. However, he can rise as high as No 6 in the Race with the Paris Masters title, with only one player above him (Alex de Minaur) still alive in Paris.

The victory also marks Dimitrov’s 20th Masters 1000 quarter-final, with the Bulgarian making the Miami Masters final eight earlier this year as well.

The 33-year-old Bulgarian edged out Argentinian Tomas Martin Etcheverry (6-7 (9), 6-3, 7-5) ahead of his victory.

In the previous rounds of the Paris-Bercy tournament, Rinderknech, ranked No 60, benefited from the abandonment of Tomas Machac (6-7 (3), 5-3) and won against American Alex Michelsen (7-6 (6), 7-6 (7)).

Paris Masters 1000, other last 16 results (Accor Arena, hard, EUR 5.950.575, most recent results first):

• Holger Rune (13) beat Arthur Cazaux (LL): 3-6, 6-3, 6-4
• Ugo Humbert (15) beat Carlos Alcaraz (2): 6-1, 3-6, 7-5
• Alex De Minaur (9) beat Jack Draper: 5-7, 6-2, 6-3
• Alexander Zverev (3) beat Arthur Fils: 6-4, 3-6, 6-3
• Karen Khachanov beat Alexei Popyrin: 7-6 (5), 6-4
• Stefanos Tsitsipas (10) beat Francisco Cerundolo: 6-7 (1), 6-4, 6-2
• Jordan Thompson beat Adrian Mannarino (WC): 7-5, 7-6 (5)