Fifth seeded Grigor Dimitrov saved two match points against No 96 Paul-Henri Mathieu of France defeating him 4-6 7-6(2) 6-2 and advanced to the second round of ATP 500 tournament in Rotterdam. Grigor Dimitrov was lost the first set 4-6 and was losing 4-5 in the second but recovered and forced the set to a tiebreak. Mathieu lost temper after strongly objecting the first point of the tiebreak. With an early break in the third set Dimitrov reached 6-4 and won the match. After the handshake Mathieu continued to argument with Dimitrov who in his turn was explaining his own point.

"Points like that are sort of the key to the match," Dimitrov said of his close call. "After the first one, I was hoping to have a look at a second serve, so I could come into the point and try to do something different. Next thing you know, I was facing a second match point. I was sure if I could take that one I could do something better, and I think I was getting in his head step by step, point by point. When I got to the tie-break I was really focused, really composed. Ultimately, I felt like I was in control of the match."

In the second round Grigor Dimitrov will play Gilles Muller of Luxembourg, No 37. In the only match so far Dimitrov beat Muller in the first round in Queen's Club in 2012.

Grigor Dimitrov will start in the prestigious tournament in the Dutch city of Rotterdam on Monday at 19:30 CET against the ex No 12 Paul Henri Mathieu of France. The Frenchman, whose current ranking position is No 96, had to play in the qualification tournament during the weekend and beat Jurgen Meltzer of Austria and entered the main draw.

In the only previous match Paul-Henri Mathieu defeated Dimitrov in the quarterfinals in Basel in 2012.

The tournament in Rotterdam is one of the most notable for Dimitrov where in 2009 he beat then No 23 Tomas Berdych in the first round and took a set of No 1 Rafael Nadal. In 2011 Dimitrov entered the main draw after playing the qualifications and lost to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the first round. The most successful participation of Dimitrov was in 2013 when he reached the semifinals after beating Bernard Tomic, Nikolay Davydenko, Marcos Baghdatis and lost to Juan Martin del Potro. In the last year's edition of ABM Amro Dimitrov defeated Tursunov in the first round but lost to Gulbis in the second round.

The potential opponent of Grigor in the quarterfinals is No 8 Stan Wawrinka. The other seeded players in the second part of the draw are Milos Raonic and Ernests Gulbis. First seeded Andy Murray leads the upper half of the draw with other seeded players Tomas Berdych, Roberto Bautista Agut and Gilles Simon.

Dimitrov booked his spot in the fourth round of Australian Open after beating the 2006 finalist Marcos Baghdatis in five sets 4-6 6-3 3-6 6-3 6-3.

"It was a tough game for me," said Dimitrov. "[I] didn't really feel comfortable on the court… Matches like that really defines I think who you are and how you want to be remembered.I think this is how you go forward. Today was one of those days for me, that I didn't really feel good on the court, wasn't really comfortable with my game, but I found a way to fight through it [from] two sets to one down. To me that says a lot, gives me a lot of confidence.”

In the fourth round Dimitrov will have the tough task to beat sixth seed Andy Murray. In the 6 matches so far Murray leads 4 to 2. Last October Murray beat Dimitrov at Paris Masters but in the other two matches in 2014 Grigor won in the quarterfinals of Wimbledon and in the semifinals in Acapulco.

In the second round of the first Grand Slam tournament of the year Grigor Dimitrov defeated Lukas Lacko of Slovakia 6-3 6-7(10) 6-3 6-3 in almost 3 hours.

In the third round on Friday Dimitrov will play a well known opponent Marcos Baghdatis. In the 6 previous matches Grigor won 5: in Acapulco last year, 3 wins in 2013 (Brisbane, Rotterdam and Rome) and in Munich in 2011. In 2012 in the second round of Wimbledon the victory went to Baghdatis as Dimitrov needed to retire.

Grigor Dimitrov needed 69 minutes to beat the German Dustin Brown 6-2 6-3 6-2. The Bulgarian scored 11 aces and 30 winners in the first round match against the world No 89 Brown. Dimitrov has to defend 360 ranking points from last year's edition of Australian Open after reaching the quarter-finals.

"It was a good start for me," said Dimitrov. "I expected it to be tricky. After a couple breaks I already knew the match can go on my side, but at the same I have to stay focused. It's best-of-five sets, and you never know what kind of shot or ball can take you out of that momentum."

In the second round Grigor Dimitrov will face Lukas Lacko of Slovakia, No 99.

Grigor Dimitrov starts on Monday early morning against world No 90 the German Dustin Brown in Melbourne. The match is scheduled for 1 am CET on Court 2. Dimitrov won the only match against Dustin Brown - in the second round in Gstaad back in 2012. The potential second round of Dimitrov will be decided in the match of Lukas Lacko, No 99, and Maximo Gonzalez, No 98.

Dimitrov is 10th seeded and the first seeded player he would meet is David Goffin, No 22, Belgium in the third round. In the 4th round we could watch a match Grigor Dimitrov - Andy Murray.

Last year Dimitrov lost in the quarterfinals of Australian Open to Rafael Nadal 6-3 6-7(3) 6-7(7) 2-6 after beating Milos Raonic in the third and Roberto Bautista-Agut in the fourth round. In the 2013 edition of the tournament Dimitrov left with after the first round loss to Julien Benneteau. In 2012 the Bulgarian defeated Jeremy Chardy at the start but then lost to Nicolas Almagro. Back in 2011 Dimitrov entered the main draw after 3 wins in the qualifications and then beat Andrey Golubev in the first round and lost in the second round to Stan Wawrinka. In his first Australian Open participation in 2010 Dimitrov was stopped in the first round of the qualifications by Robert Kendrick.

The matches of Australian Open will be broadcasted by Eurosport.

Fourth seed Grigor Dimitrov needed 2 hours and 30 minutes to win his first single match of the new season. In the second round at Brisbane International he scored 10 aces, saved 5 of 7 break-points and after saving 2 match points succeed to defeat the Frenchman Jeremy Chardy 3-6 6-4 7-6(8). In the tie-break of the 3rd set reached a lead of 4-2 then Chardy took the next 4 points to 4-6. Then the Frenchman made two double faults which brought Dimitrov back to the match. Grigor had chances to close the match at 7-6 and 8-7 but succeeded only with the 3rd chance and won the tie-break 10-8 and the match.

Dimitrov gained $12'990 and 45 ranking points after this win. In the quarterfinals on Friday Grigor Dimitrov will play the Slovak Martin Klizan, No 34. It will will be the first match of Dimitrov against Klizan.

On Thursday Dimitrov and his doubles partner Thanasi Kokkinakis of Australia will play in the quarterfinals against seeded third pair Robert Linstedt of Sweden and Marcin Matkowski of Poland. In the first round Dimitrov/Kokkinakis defeated Chardy/Kubot 6-3 3-6 [10-8].

Grigor Dimitrov is 4th seeded of the main draw of Brisbane International in Australia. The Bulgarian will start directly from the second round where he might play either Jeremy Chardy or Andrey Golubev. The head-to-head score of Dimitrov with the Frenchman Chardy, No 29, is 1-1: Grigor lost in the first round of Roland Garros in 2011 and won in the first round at Australian Open the next year. In the only match in the main draws on ATP Tour level Dimitrov beat Golubev in the first round of Australian Open in 2011. Back in 2008 in the qualifications in Barcelona the winner was Golubev.

No 23 Alexandr Dolgopolov is the potential opponent of Dimitrov at the quarter-finals. In the semi-finals Dimitrov could meet last year`s finalist here Roger Federer.

In the previous two participations in Brisbane Grigor Dimtrov reached the final in 2013 where he lost to Andy Murray and the second round last year (lost to Marin Cilic).

Dimitrov will enter also the doubles tournament in partnership with the local youngster Thanasi Kokkinakis. In the first round the Bulgarian-Australian pair will play Jeremy Chardy,France,and Lukasz Kubot, Poland.

The fans of TennisTV voted for the Hottest Shot of the Year 2014 and the winner is Grigor Dimitrov!

Dimitrov is No 1in the list with a huge 76% of votes for his sensational behind-the-back shot at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells in March.

Roger Federer is at second place for his hot shot at Monte Carlo Rolex Masters against Novak Djokovic. The shot of Rafael Nadal in the Sony Open Tennis final against Novak Djokovic again is ranked at No 3.


Watch the No 1 shot of Dimitrov here

Grigor Dimitrov took an easy win in the second round of Paris Masters on Wednesday. Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay could not win any games in the first. Dimitrov needed 62 minutes to beat Cuevas 6-0 6-2. And this was Grigor's 50th win of the season.

In the third round Dimitrov will have the heavy task to beat Andy Murray for the third time this year after the semifinals in Acapulco and the quarterfinals at Wimbledon. The match is at about 2:30 pm CET.

"[Dimitrov] still has a decent chance at getting into London, so he'd be pretty motivated," Murray said. "It will be a good match for both of us."