2 Things that stood out in Grigor Dimitrov's 1R win over Lorenzo Musetti at Paris Masters

Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria beat Lorenzo Musetti of Italy 6-2 6-7 (4-7) 6-3 in the first round of the Paris Masters on Monday, October 30. The match lasted for almost two and a half hours, as the 32-year-old Bulgarian, who is having a very good 2023, prevailed in the end.

Dimitrov will take on third seed Daniil Medvedev of Russia in the second round on Wednesday. The two had met earlier in Vienna last week in a match that saw Medvedev win after an interesting battle.

On that note, let us take a look at two things that stood out in the match:

#1. Musetti’s tactic of rushing the net backfired in the first set:

Monday’s match was a battle between two players with one-handed backhands and both players used their backhand slices extensively. However, the 21-year-old Italian kept rushing the net often to put pressure on Dimitrov.

However, that tactic was not successful on most of the occasions as Dimitrov’s passing shots proved to be too difficult to handle for Musetti. The Bulgarian thus broke the Italian early in the first set to take a 2-1 lead and then held his serve to extend it to 3-1.

Dimitrov then broke Musetti once again in the set to win it at a canter and take a vital 1-0 lead in the match.

#2. Musetti changed his tactic, but Dimitrov dominated with his forehand:

Musetti altered his tactic to stay more often on the baseline from the second set onwards, but Dimitrov got yet another early break of serve to lead 4-2 in it.

The Italian had to save a match point in the 10th game, but then managed to break back to take the set into a tie-break. Musetti hit a few nice down-the-line backhands to stun the Bulgarian.

Musetti then won the tie-break to draw level and give himself a chance to topple the Bulgarian. However, Dimitrov once again started the third set in a whirlwind fashion by getting an early break to take a 3-0 lead.

The Bulgarian dictated terms with his powerful forehand in the final set, going around his backhand repeatedly to hit his inside-in and inside-out forehand with a lot of venom.

Dimitrov fired seven aces in the match and won 82% of the points on his first serve. Musetti, in comparison, only managed to win 60% of the points on his first serve, which helped the Bulgarian take control. Dimitrov converted four of the nine break points that came his way to assert his supremacy.