Dimitrov, Muguruza lift Cincinnati titles

Bulgarian tennis star Grigor Dimitrov continued to perform at his menacing best as he trounced Australian player Nick Kyrgios in straight sets to lift his maiden 2017 Western and Southern Open trophy in Cincinnati here on Monday.

The seventh-seed, who was playing his first summit showdown in Cincinnati, dominated throughout the match even as he posted a comfortable 6-3, 7-5 win over Kyrgios in the men’s singles clash that lasted for an hour and 25 minutes.

“I’m just happy. There’s nothing else I can say, honestly. I’m just happy and I’m humbled to have that trophy in my hands, and especially to win here, my first Masters 1000. It’s just amazing. I always like this tournament. I have played it quite a few times and always thought this can be, maybe one of the first ones, and it is the first one,” the ATP website quoted Dimitrov, as saying, following the win.

It is Dimitrov’s third ATP World Tour crown of the year and first at the Masters 1000 level of his career.

Prior to this, Dimitrov has won his only previous meeting against Kyrgios, taking out the 22-year-old in a third-set tiebreak at Indian Wells in 2015.

En route to the finals, the 26-year-old, who lost in the last year’s semifinal to eventual champion Marin Cilic, defeated John Isner 7-6 (4), 7-6 (10) in the first men’s last-four encounter .

It should be noted that Dimitrov started this year nearly perfectly on hard courts, going 16-1 en route to the Australian Open semi-finals and titles in Brisbane and Sofia.