Carlos Alcaraz says he was made to feel like a “13-year-old” by Grigor Dimitrov after being beaten in the quarter-finals of the Miami Open.
Bulgarian Dimitrov won 6-2 6-4 to set up a last-four meeting with Germany’s fourth seed Alexander Zverev.
“He played amazing tennis, almost perfect,” said top seed Alcaraz, 20.
He was aiming to become the first man to win the ‘Sunshine Double’ – back-to-back titles at Indian Wells and Miami – since Roger Federer in 2017.
But 11th seed Dimitrov upset the Spaniard and Alcaraz added: “I couldn’t find solutions. I couldn’t find a way to make him feel uncomfortable on the court. It was a great game from his side.
“It was crazy. I was talking to my team, saying that I don’t know what I have to do. I don’t know his weakness. I don’t know anything.”
Dimitrov dominated the opening set, breaking Alcaraz’s first service game before striking again at 5-2.
The two-time Grand Slam champion fought back from 4-1 down in the second, but Dimitrov broke for a fourth time to wrap up a second successive win over the Spaniard in 92 minutes.
“To win against him, you have to play at your best – that’s just how it is,” said Dimitrov, who also beat Alcaraz at October’s Shanghai Masters.
“Sometimes simplicity is genius. It’s very hard to do it, especially when you play against an opponent like that, but I was able to dictate the game, read the game a bit better than the last time.”
Dimitrov will return will return to the top 10 for the first time since 2018 if he beats Zverev to reach the Miami final.
Zverev reached the last four of the Miami Open for the first time since 2018 with a 6-3 7-5 victory over Hungary’s Fabian Marozsan.
The Olympic champion used his serve to great effect, while taking four of the seven break points he created against the 57th-ranked Marozsan, who had already beaten top-10 players Holger Rune and Alex de Minaur on his way to the last eight.
“I’m happy to be back in these late stages of these tournaments, playing the best players in the world, I think there are only those left,” said Zverev, 26.
“I’m looking forward to the challenge.”
Italian second seed Jannik Sinner and Russian third seed Daniil Medvedev ha already booked their places in the last four on Wednesday, setting up a rematch of their recent Australian Open final.
Zverev was beaten by Medvedev in the Melbourne last four as he still looks to claim a maiden Grand Slam title.
Despite not yet being able to land one of the sport’s biggest prizes, he has continued to demonstrate why he is one of the ATP Tour’s leading players and reached a 17th Masters 1,000 semi-final by sweeping aside Marozsan.
Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray are the only active players to have played in more Masters semi-finals than Zverev.
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