ATP Monte-Carlo: Davidovich Fokina defeats Dimitrov (6-4, 6-7, 6-3) and qualifies for his first final

He will go to the end of his beautiful story. Arriving in Monte-Carlo without landmarks and falling for world number 1 Novak Djokovic in the 2nd round, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina will be there for the final on the Rock, the first of his young career, and a fortiori in Masters 1000. On Saturday, he went through all the emotions to give himself this great joy before finally winning in three sets (6-4, 6-7, 6-3) and 2h45 of play against Grigor Dimitrov. To open his record, the 22-year-old Spaniard will challenge Alexander Zverev or Stefanos Tsitsipas, who meet in the second semi-final.

Faithful to what he had shown in the previous rounds, he didn’t give up. And Alejandro Davidovich Fokina was finally rewarded for it, even though he seemed to have missed his chance. Broken at the start of the third round and on the verge of knockout, the 46th player in the world refused to give up, confirming the mental progress already seen against “Djoker” and Taylor Fritz in the quarter-finals .

Miraculously, Dimitrov missed the mark in the 3rd set

Davidovich Fokina had all the more merit that he managed to overcome an immense frustration: that of having missed the opportunity to conclude in two sets a match which he had well in hand. More solid and consistent from the baseline than his Bulgarian rival, the Spaniard thus served for the first time for a place in the final at 6-4, 5-4. Smiling then at the ovation reserved for the two actors by the short Rainier-III, he then masked in fact a great nervousness. Chaining the faults in stride, he saw Dimitrov come back to height before largely yielding the tie-break 7 points to 2 (6-4, 6-7).

It must be said that the Bulgarian, for his part, had suddenly regained color. Slow in his movements and neutral to the exchange until then, Dimitrov exploited the clear drop in the opposing regime to take over the management of operations. Much more alert, lively and precise in his adjustments, he found percussion in the forehand and even got four double break points at the start of the third act (6-4, 6-7, 0-2). But the Bulgarian’s great fault was not knowing how to convert them.

A change of sides and a physio intervention later and Davidovich Fokina returned to the fight, invigorated, while on the other side of the net, Dimitrov crumbled. Result: five consecutive games scored by the Spaniard, again inhabited. And when serving a second time for the match at 5-3, this time he did not tremble, quite the contrary. Leaping and aggressive, he even closed the deal with a final ace slice, before throwing himself into the arms of his entire team, drunk with joy. This week is definitely his.