“Perfect” tennis by Dimitrov makes Alcaraz feel “13 years old”

Carlos Alcaraz could not have been more impressed with his opponent after he lost to Grigor Dimitrov in two quick sets at the Miami Open on Thursday.

Carlos Alcaraz and Grigor Dimitrov at the net, Miami Open 2024 – © Julien Nouet / Tennis Majors

Ricky Dimon

March 29, 2024

Grigor Dimitrov could do no wrong during his 6-2, 6-4 upset of Carlos Alcaraz in the Miami Open quarter-finals.

Despite the incredible performance, Dimitrov was not about to dwell on what had transpired at Hard Rock Stadium on Thursday night. After all, he has to prepare for a Friday semi-final against Alexander Zverev.

“I feel good, (but) I’m not rating anything yet since I have to play again tomorrow,” the 32-year-old said at his press conference. “I’m trying to stay on point. This is how our sport is. You appreciate it, of course. You’re very happy with the current win. Then you have to quickly move on and start focusing on the next match.

“I think at the moment I’m just very pleased that I was able to go through that match, to go through it in such a manner — and I already have another match to play tomorrow. To be completely honest with you, everything kind of shifted already for tomorrow.”

it was crazy. I was talking to my team saying that I don’t know what I have to do.
Carlos Alcaraz

With Dimitrov keeping his eyes on the prize, the man he defeated was more than willing to heap praise on the Bulgarian.

“I think he played amazing tennis,” Alcaraz assessed. “Almost perfect — if I can say ‘perfect.’ I mean, I couldn’t find solutions. I couldn’t find a way to make him feel uncomfortable on the court. It was a great game from his side.

“I think I played good tennis. I left the court thinking that probably I had to change my game a little bit earlier, but anyway I feel like I played a good [level] — not perfect but a good one. But I have a lot of frustrations right now, because he made me feel like I’m 13 years old. It was crazy. I was talking to my team saying that I don’t know what I have to do. I don’t know his weakness. I don’t know anything.

“I really want to see the stats. Probably they’re going to rank him (at a) 10 or 9.9, something like that…. Seeing Grigor playing at this level, it’s really tough to play against him.”

Dimitrov has now won two matches in a row against Alcaraz, having previously lost their first three encounters. The world No. 12 also won 5-7, 6-2, 6-4 last fall at the Shanghai Masters.