A spot in the ATP Finals semifinals was on the line when Grigor Dimitrov took on David Goffin on Wednesday. The Bulgarian ended up winning in dominant fashion, as he prevailed with a 6-0, 6-2 victory.
This is a match that was truly never competitive, and it's hard to imagine that Dimitrov even expended too much energy. That should help him in his upcoming meeting with Pablo Carreno Busta, but the 26-year-old won't be playing for much in that one. With two wins in Group Pete Sampras, Dimitrov has advanced to the semifinals of this event.
And none of this has really come as a surprise to him. Dimitrov recently spoke about the improvements he has made this year.
“I think every year you learn more about yourself, about the game, about the players. I've done also a lot of work on and off the court,” Dimitrov said. “It finally comes together. I think the past 10 months I've been playing against super elite players. Some point, yeah, I was looking back, to who I've lost my matches against, and all that? It has always been quality players, like higher-ranked players. That's a good sign. Obviously I'm trying to [fill] the little gaps that I think I can do better on. From now on, I think the little things will make a huge difference."
On Wednesday, it was easy to see why he feels it's all starting to come together. Dimitrov played a virtually flawless match, winning 85% of his first-serve points and converting on five of his 11 opportunities to break.
Goffin, meanwhile, looks to be playing at nowhere near 100 percent health. The Belgian was hobbling in his victory over Rafael Nadal on Monday, but he had absolutely none of the same magic in this match.
Goffin does, however, have a chance to make it to the semifinals here. If he can beat Dominic Thiem on Friday then he will be 2-1 and that would be good enough for him to advance, as the tournament's tiebreaker strongly values matches played. That would become important if Goffin is sitting there at 2-1 and Carreno Busta also wins both of his matches to move to 2-0.
So while today might have been rough for the 26-year-old, it's a bit too early to start thinking about next week's Davis Cup final. He is still very much alive in this thing, and winning this tournament would be the biggest achievement of his career thus far.