News desk
\nNEW YORK
\nGrigor Dimitrov rallied for a shocking upset of 20-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer at the US Open on Tuesday, the lowest-ranked New York semi-finalist in 28 years advancing to face Daniil Medvedev.
\nThe 78th-ranked Bulgarian, who had dropped all seven prior meetings with Federer, made a dramatic fightback to defeat the Swiss third seed 3-6, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 at Arthur Ashe Stadium and will face Russian fifth seed Medvedev in Friday\u2019s semis.
\n\u201cI\u2019m just happy,\u201d Dimitrov said. \u201cThe only thing I was telling myself was to stay in the match. Physically I was feeling pretty good. I was hitting some shots against him that were hard to hit.\u201d
\nDimitrov reached his first US Open semi-final to match the deepest Slam runs of his career from Wimbledon in 2014 and the 2017 Australian Open.
\nNot since 174th-ranked Jimmy Connors reached the 1991 quarter-finals had New York seen so lowly a figure on the ATP ratings list reach the last four.
\nDimitrov is also the lowest-ranked Slam semi-finalist since 94th-rated Rainer Schuettler of Germany at Wimbledon in 2008.
\nFederer was denied on five break points in the 10th game of the fourth set and Dimitrov held to force a fifth set.
\n\u201cI was trying to stay in that game and make him stay on the court as much as possible. After that he started slowing down a little bit,\u201d Dimitrov said.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s a best of five sets. Anything can happen.\u201d
\nFederer went off the court for a private medical timeout to treat his upper back near his neck.
\n\u201cThis is Grigor\u2019s moment, not my body\u2019s moment,\u201d Federer said.
\nDimitrov broke Federer twice on the way to a 4-0 lead in the final set and the 38-year-old Swiss star had no effective reply, foiled by 61 unforced errors in falling after three hours and 12 minutes.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s OK. It\u2019s how it goes,\u201d Federer said. \u201cI tried my best. I fought with what I had and that\u00b4s it.\u201d
\nFederer, a five-time US Open champion who hasn\u2019t lifted the Flushing Meadows title since 2008, would have become the oldest Slam semi-finalist since Jimmy Connors at age 39 at the 1991 US Open.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
News desk NEW YORK Grigor Dimitrov rallied for a shocking upset of 20-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer at the US Open on Tuesday, the lowest-ranked New York semi-finalist in 28 years advancing to face Daniil Medvedev. The 78th-ranked Bulgarian, who had dropped all seven prior meetings with Federer, made a dramatic fightback to defeat […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81510,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"\n