TENNIS NEWS - Malek Jaziri thrilled fans at the Dubai Championships with a 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 first-round knockout of top seed Grigor Dimitrov to earn the biggest win of his career on Tuesday.
The Tunisian ranked 117 broke midway through the final set after fighting back to beat his first top 10 player.
The fourth-ranked Dimitrov was far from his best, perhaps still not fully recovered from the illness which bothered him this month as he lost the Rotterdam final to Roger Federer. He has also been bothered by a shoulder injury in recent months.
"You have days like this that you can't really do much else," Dimitrov said. "Unfortunately, I couldn't play my game to the extent that I was looking for.
"Movement was not good over the court. I thought I served okay for a little bit, but then I lost my rhythm again.
"All the credit to Malek. He played a good game, he was strong throughout the whole match. He had nothing to lose.
"Also pretty much a lot of luck was on his side, with the let calls. You control what you can control.
"Tonight, I couldn't control anything on my side."
Jaziri has a history in Dubai, facing major names including Federer -- he took a set off the Swiss in 2013 -- Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray, who beat him in the first round here a year ago.
"I just tried to enjoy the match and play my game," said Jaziri. "This is a fantastic result."
Wildcard Jaziri is playing the Dubai main draw for the sixth consecutive year, with a quarterfinal run in 2014 his best showing.
