Rome, May 14 (BNA) Novak Djokovic continued his Italian Open title defense with a 6-3 4-6 6-1 victory over Bulgarian 26th seed Grigor Dimitrov on Sunday while women’s champion Iga Swiatek brought out the “bread” again. Ukrainian Lesya Tsurenko, according to Reuters.
Djokovic, who will lose his world number one ranking at the end of the Masters 1000 to Carlos Alcaraz, overcame a slow start and late comeback attempt by familiar foe Dimitrov to cross the line in their third-round meeting.
Both players surrendered serve early in the first set before Djokovic lifted the match to pull away 4-1, with an 11th victory over Dimitrov in 12 meetings seeming inevitable.
Dimitrov, who won his only victory over the world number one Serbian 10 years ago in Madrid, achieved a strong grip but could not prevent his opponent from escaping with the first set and seizing the advantage in the next.
But the former world number three fought four consecutive matches 4-2 to take the second set and force a decision. But Djokovic roared back after securing a double break in the third set and this time held on to advance.
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