DELRAY BEACH, February 18, 2016
The bottom half of the draw was in second round action on Wednesday at the Delray Beach Open.
With three of four top-seeds upset in the first round, debutant Grigor Dimitrov is the highest ranked player left in the draw. The 24-year-old Bulgarian had to fight hard, rallying past Damir Dzumhur 4-6, 6-4, 6-3. Dimitrov won 51% of the total points, breaking his opponent’s serve six times to prevail in one hour and 57 minutes.
“I was trying to find my game. I didn’t think I was playing well. All the credit to Damir, he deserved all the way to win,” Dimitrov said. “I was just patient and I was very centred towards the end of the match. I thought I was very composed and just putting the ball in the court, that’s all I had to do. A win is a win.”
Dimitrov will face Adrian Mannarino next. The eighth seed from France battled past Tatsuma Ito, winning 7-6, 6-7, 6-3. Mannarino smashed 12 aces and capitalized on six of his 17 break point chances to advance in two hours and 45 minutes.
Benjamin Becker (photo: Delray Beach Open)
Benjamim Becker knocked out sixth seed Steve Johnson through a 7-5, 6-7, 6-3 victory. The German also got the better in the only previuos meeting between the two in Washington 2012. Becker surged to 5-3 and served for the opening set but lost eight games straight to concede it 7-5 and trail 4-0 in the second before he staged his comeback.
“I got a little bit angry at myself. At 4-0 I tried to hang in there, mix up my game, come into net a little bit more,” Becker said. “I lost a bit of my rhythm after I got angry at myself, I got a bit lucky. Obviously if you’re down two breaks your chances are very slim, but I played a great game to come back to 4-1, then you never know. He starts to think about it.
“I started to play more aggressive, he was more passive. I think the tie-break was the main point. He could easily have won that and won the match.” Becker withstood 13 aces, winning 53% of the total points to finish the encounter after two hours and 12 minutes.
The 34-year-old Texas resident will take on another US-American in the quarterfinals, as Rajeev Ram beat Illya Marchenko 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 in two hours and 32 minutes.
