Sinner, soon-to-be No 1, rolls over Dimitrov in Roland-Garros quarter-finals

Jannik Sinner secured his spot in the semi-finals at Roland-Garros for the first time in his career after beating Grigor Dimitrov 6-2, 6-4, 7-6 (3) on Tuesday afternoon. Sinner, who previously reached the last eight in Paris four years ago, prevailed in two hours and 29 minutes.

The Italian was never in serious trouble despite facing an in-form opponent and playing in quite windy conditions. He broke serve early in each of the first two sets to seize complete control.

Dimitrov briefly mounted a charge in the third. The Bulgarian held his first four service games before seemingly sealing his fate by getting broken at 4-4. However, from out of nowhere Dimitrov broke Sinner’s serve for the first time to keep his faint hopes alive. The 33-year-old managed to force a tiebreak, but at that point it was one-way traffic once again for Sinner.

“Things can happen,” Sinner said of his hiccup at 5-4 in the third. “For sure when you serve for the match, the first point [is] very important. I missed easy backhand, and then after I’m (at) 15-30, I missed easy forehands. But this is part of the sport, part of the tension. You cannot play always in the same way. You have to accept it, no?

I think it was very important to stay very close with my service games [at] 5-6. The tiebreak I played really well, even if I had those couple of chances before. But I’m happy to see these couple of things while I’m playing, trying to understand. I think this is normal to have some ups and downs. So it was all okay.

“It was a tactical match and I played it really, really well. It was a tough situation; it was windy, it was tough to play.”

SINNER TO BECOME NO 1 WITH DJOKOVIC’S WITHDRAWAL

The 22-year-old will face the winner of the match between Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, the No 9 seed, and Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, the No 3 seed.

Regardless of his results the rest of the way, Sinner is guaranteed to become No 1 in the world next week thanks to Novak Djokovic’s withdrawal. Djokovic, who was defending 2,000 points from last year’s title at Roland-Garros, reached the quarter-finals with a five-set win over Francisco Cerundolo on Monday but is unable to continue due to a medial meniscus tear.

Sinner’s road to the semis also included wins over American Christopher Eubanks (6-3, 6-3, 6-4), French wildcard Richard Gasquet (6-4, 6-2, 6-4), Russian Pavel Kotov (6-4, 6-4, 6-4) and Frenchman Corentin Moutet (2-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-1).

Dimitrov reached the quarters by beating American Aleksandar Kovacevic (6-4, 6-3, 6-4), Hungarian Fabian Marozsan (6-0, 6-3, 6-4), Belgian qualifier Zizou Bergs (6-3, 7-6 (4), 4-6, 6-4) and Pole Hubert Hurkacz, the No 8 seed (7-6 (5), 6-4, 7-6 (3)).

Paris (Grand Slam), other last eight results (Roland-Garros, clay, EUR 53.478.000, most recent results first):

• Alexander Zverev vs. Alex De Minaur
• Casper Ruud d Novak Djokovic (walkover)
• Stefanos Tsitsipas vs. Carlos Alcaraz

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