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Dimitrov beats Djokovic in Madrid Open

Grigor Dimitrov, shown at last year's French Open, defeated world No. 1 Novak Djokovic in Tuesday's second-round action of the Madrid Open. UPI/David Silpa
Grigor Dimitrov, shown at last year's French Open, defeated world No. 1 Novak Djokovic in Tuesday's second-round action of the Madrid Open. UPI/David Silpa | License Photo

MADRID, May 7 (UPI) -- Grigor Dimitrov ousted world No. 1 Novak Djokovic in a three-set marathon Tuesday in a second-round match at the Madrid Open.

Dimitrov claimed a 7-6 (8-6), 6-7 (8-10), 6-3 victory to beat Djokovic for the first time in his career. It was just the third defeat this year for Djokovic.

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Dimitrov took the last four points of the first tiebreaker, fighting off two set points, and was down 5-2 in the second before rallying, denying Djokovic to win any of the three set points he had. Dimitrov posted a third-game break in the third set to move ahead and added his fourth break of the day to assure the win in 3 hours, 5 minutes.

Defending champion and No. 2-seeded Roger Federer advanced with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Radek Stepanek with four breaks, including three in the second set. Federer improved to 12-2 lifetime versus Stepanek.

Third-seeded Andy Murray took a tight 7-6 (13-11), 7-6 (7-3) decision from Florian Mayer. Murray won 72 percent of the points on serve but only had one break.

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Daniel Gimeno-Traver eliminated No. 8-seeded Richard Gasquet 7-5, 3-6, 6-4 and Fernando Verdasco took out 12th-seeded Milos Raonic 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (9-7) in other second-round upsets but No. 16-seeded Gilles Simon, who will next go against Murray, beat Jeremy Chardy 6-4, 7-6 (7-5).

Also in the second round, Pablo Andujar topped John Isner 6-4, 6-4.

The first round was completed and Juan Monaco ousted ninth-seeded Janko Tipsarevic 7-6 (7-5), 6-3 while 13th-seeded Tommy Haas routed Andrea Seppi 6-1, 6-2 and 15th-seeded Stanislas Wawrinka got past Marius Copil 6-4, 6-4.

Other first-round winners Tuesday were Tommy Robredo, Santiago Giraldo, Benoit Paire, Mikhail Youzhny and Viktor Troicki.

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