Marseille Open: Dimitrov comes through Korda challenge to reach quarter-finals

Grigor Dimitrov, the second seed, moved into the quarter-finals of the Marseille Open by defeating American Sebastian Korda 6-1, 7-6 (5) at the Palais des sports.

The Bulgarian was in superb form throughout the contest, but especially in the first set where his scintillating display of shot-making simply overwhelmed the American.

Korda fought back from a break down in the second but was unable to use that foothold to force a third set as Dimitrov confidently took the breaker to seal an impressive win.

“He’s so dangerous on any surface. We’ve practiced multiple times. Great guy above all. I knew he was going to be tricky. He’s very crafty, and I like that. He can always put me in an uncomfortable position,” the Bulgarian said after the match.

“The first set was amazing. Whatever I was touching was getting to the right place. In matches like that sometimes it’s very difficult to maintain it.

“In the second set he had one look and he took it. The game he broke me, amazing returns. Just amazing play overall.

“He kind of took the ball away from my racquet. I had to find a way to get back.”

Dimitrov, ranked No 13, will play the winner of the match between No 8 seed Jiri Lehecka and Frenchman Arthur Rinderknech next.

In the previous round of the Marseille tournament, Korda, ranked No 34, edged out French qualifier Hugo Grenier (6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (3)).

Marseille ATP 250, other second-round results (Palais des sports, hard, EUR 801.335, most recent results first):

• Jiri Lehecka vs. Arthur Rinderknech
• Hubert Hurkacz vs. Alexander Shevchenko
• Zhizhen Zhang beat Felix Auger-Aliassime (7): 6-4, 6-4
• Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (5) beat Emil Ruusuvuori: 6-3, 7-5
• Ugo Humbert (4) beat Hugo Gaston (Q): 2-6, 6-1, 6-3
• Karen Khachanov (3) beat Roberto Bautista Agut: 6-2, 6-2
• Tomas Machac beat Lorenzo Musetti (6): 6-3, 6-2