Grigor “G-Unit” Dimitrov has powered his way to his second career Masters 1000 final, defeating Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-3, 6-7 (1), 7-6 (3) on Saturday at the Rolex Paris Masters in Bercy, Paris.

G-Unit, who is currently sitting seventh in the race to London for the UTS Tour this season, played brilliantly to move past No 7 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas, who provided a real test for Dimitrov in what has been an excellent week for the Bulgarian.

One more match remains if Dimitrov is to claim his second Masters 1000 level title, with Novak Djokovic waiting in the final on Sunday.

G-Unit starts fast, withstands Tsitsipas fight back

Having already beaten one top 10 player in the form of fellow UTS contestant Daniil “The Chessmaster” Medvedev earlier in the week, Dimitrov faced an uphill battle to beat Tsitsipas in the Paris Masters semi-finals, with the Greek owning a 6-1 head-to-head between the pair.

However, G-Unit was unphased, and came out firing to take the first set 6-3. With 10 winners and just one unforced error across the opening stanza, Dimitrov was almost untouchable on serve, dropping just the three points.

In the second set, Tsitsipas began to find some of his rhythm and pressure G-Unit more on serve. While there were no breaks, by the time 12 games had unfolded, it was the world No 6 who had the upper hand in terms of momentum heading into the tiebreaker. Tsitsipas pushed his advantage home, running out to an impressive 6-0 lead in the tiebreak and converting on his second set point to force a decider.

With it seeming as though Dimitrov’s chances to win this match were gone, and Tsitsipas firing on serve (eight aces in the third set, no break points faced), the Bulgarian dug deep and repelled four break points in the deciding set. Another tiebreak loomed, and this time it was to be G-Unit who prevailed, with the UTS star coming out on top 7-3.

Rublo falls just short of facing G-Unit in final

While the win sees G-Unit advance to just his second Masters 1000 final, having won his only previous appearance at this level in Cincinnati, another UTS player in action fell painstakingly short on Saturday.

Andrey “Rublo” Rublev faced off against world No 1 Novak Djokovic in the other Paris Masters semi-final, and came within a whisker of upsetting the six-time champion, losing 7-5, 6-7 (3), 5-7.

Having been broken in the opening game of the match, Rublo bounced back to win the first set against Djokovic 7-5. What ensued after this was an arm-wrestle, with the next set going to tiebreaker and the 24-time Grand Slam champion coming up clutch, before the deciding set saw Rublev drop serve at the final hurdle, going down 7-5.  

Rublo sits No 1 in the UTS race this year having been victorious at the most recent event in UTS Frankfurt.