Grass and diving go hand in hand. The low-bouncing, slick surface makes diving an integral part of the grass game. The word ‘diving’ on grass immediately helps us recall images of a flying Boris Becker, who ruled the courts of Wimbledon in the 1980s and won it three times.
The former World No. 1 would be extremely proud to see the glorious diving volley that the 2008 junior champion Grigor Dimitrov conjured up against the former Australian Open runner-up Marcos Baghdatis in his second round match at The Championships on Thursday.
Considering that it was the match point, going for that shot was quite a risky gamble from the Bulgarian and he actually managed to pull it off with élan.
The 13th seeded Dimitrov, who lost his way after reaching the semi-finals of the Australian Open earlier in the year, played an immaculate match and showed signs of being one of the biggest threats. He has been a semi-finalist before and he played like one today.
With 29 winners to just 15 unforced errors, Dimitrov broke Baghdatis six times and did not drop his serve even once. The result was an impressive 6-3, 6-2, 6-1 victory in 1 hour 42 minutes.
But it was the way in which he bagged the victory that became a rage on the social media.
With a match point in his kitty, he returned Baghdatis’ serve with his trademark single-handed backhand and then went for an inside-out forehand. Even mildly slipping on the surface could not prevent him from pushing the Cypriot further out of the court with his beautiful acute angles.
Dimitrov displayed his brilliant anticipation skills as he was right there in the forecourt when Baghdatis managed to return his shot. Even though he fell and rolled over, he was still able to put the ball across the court in a spectacular fashion.
The effort quite deservedly earned him a lot of applause and had the commentator saying, “One of the great shots to win a hugely entertaining match!”
