Today’s action at the Rogers Cup in Toronto sees Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov take on Spain’s Fernando Verdasco in the second round. Dimitrov has not been in great form recently, going out in the first round at Wimbledon to Stan Wawrinka and hasn’t fared well on the hard court either.
A disappointing year for Dimitrov so far
After hitting his career high of No.3 in the ATP Rankings at the start of the year, the Bulgarian was expected to continue his great form but it just hasn’t happened. He will now be looking at the upcoming US Open as his last opportunity to make 2018 a successful year by his own high standards. So the Rogers Cup is going to determine what sort of form he goes into the US Open with, making the match against Verdasco a vital one for him.
Dimitrov vs Verdasco: Head to head
Fernando Verdasco currently ranks at 31 and he beat Dimitrov in straight sets in the third round at Roland Garros this year, before going on to lose to Novak Djokovic in the 4th round. They have met four times before that and from the five matches they have played, Verdasco won 3 of them.
Verdasco and his struggle against top-10 players
Verdasco goes into the Rogers Cup match with the confidence from knowing he beat Dimitrov in the last two encounters. However, his record playing against top-10 players is not the best, so that could be playing in the back of his mind with Dimitrov currently ranked in 5th place.
Betting odds
Grigor Dimitrov to win – 4/7
Fernando Verdasco to win 5/4
How to watch Dimitrov vs. Verdasco
The match is live on ESPN2 at 9.20pm UK time.