Grigor Dimitrov scores third Top 5 win in the last month with victory over Medvedev in Paris

Less than 24 hours after Roman Safiullin stunned world No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz in Paris, the world No. 3 has been taken out in the French capital as well, as Grigor Dimitrov pulled off a thrilling 6-3, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (2) second-round victory over Daniil Medvedev.

Dimitrov had lost to Medvedev from a set up in Vienna last week, 3-6, 6-2, 6-4, and at one point it looked like this one might slip away too—he originally led 5-2 in the third set but watched on as Medvedev saved six match points to push it to a third set tie-break.

But the Bulgarian raced out to a 5-0 lead in the breaker and closed it out on his seventh match point a few points later.

Afterwards, he pointed to one thing that made the difference.

“I think resilient. I was very resilient throughout the whole match,” he said. “I was looking for the match, I always wanted to create the game, I was trying to create my plays and go after the shots.

“I think last week, I think it also gave me a lot of insight of the things I can do better and things I wanted to do better. Yeah, a difficult one today, but I’m very happy that, you know, I managed to also hold onto my emotions and keep going after my game.”

Dimitrov’s resilience has kept a very impressive stat going—after going almost two years without a victory over a Top 5 player, he’s now had three Top 5 wins in the last month alone.

After defeating a No. 2-ranked Medvedev at the fall edition of Indian Wells on October 13th, 2021, Dimitrov went 0-12 against Top 5 players through the end of September 2023.

But since the start of October 2023, he’s 3-1 against them.

DIMITROV VS TOP 5 PLAYERS SINCE START OF OCTOBER 2023:
d. No. 4 Rune in Beijing 2nd Rd, 6-3, 7-5
d. No. 2 Alcaraz in Shanghai 4th Rd, 5-7, 6-2, 6-4
l. to No. 3 Medvedev in Vienna 2nd Rd, 3-6, 6-2, 6-4
d. No. 3 Medvedev in Paris 2nd Rd, 6-3, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (2)

There are no more Top 5 players left in Dimitrov's half of the draw in Paris. Three are still alive in the other half of the draw, the top half: No. 1 Novak Djokovic, No. 4 Jannik Sinner and No. 5 Andrey Rublev.

He'll take on No. 33 Alexander Bublik in the third round.