American Harrison Upsets Dimitrov in Acapulco

American qualifier Ryan Harrison notched the first top 10 win of his career on Wednesday, knocking off the 10th-ranked Grigor Dimitrov 7-5, 4-6, 6-0 at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel. Harrison entered the match with a 0-22 record against top 10 opponents, but converted on five of nine break point chances to move past the Bulgarian in one hour and 49 minutes.

“I feel good,” said the 22-year-old Harrison. “I got into qualies as an alternate … and obviously here we are now. It’s crazy how things work. I’m just happy to be here. I’m really excited to focus on my career … I want to be the best tennis player in the world. It’s one of those things where you care about what you’re doing, you love what you’re doing and you want to be the best.”

After the two traded set wins, Harrison bageled Dimitrov 6-0 in the third set. He won 25 of the 36 points overall and did not even allow Dimitrov a break point chance.

“It happens. It’s just the way it is,” said Dimitrov. “It’s a bad loss for me, but best of luck to Ryan in the upcoming rounds.”

In the quarterfinals, Harrison will take on sixth-seeded Ivo Karlovic, who got past Serbia’s Dusan Lajovic 3-6, 6-3, 6-1.

Top-seeded Kei Nishikori eased into the quarterfinals with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Yen-Hsun Lu. Nishikori needed less than an hour to move past Lu. He moves on to play fifth-seeded Alexandr Dolgopolov after the Ukrainian knocked off Austria’s Andreas Haider-Maurer 6-2, 6-3.

Kevin Anderson also moved into the final eight, coming back to defeat American Steve Johnson 3-6, 7-6, 6-3. The fourth-seeded South African fired 13 aces and was able to save four of the six break point chances he allowed.

Anderson will next play Viktor Troicki. The Serb cruised past Santiago Giraldo 6-3, 6-4 to move into his third quarterfinal of 2015.

Second-seeded David Ferrer, a three-time champion at the event, escaped a first-set tie-breaker and held on for a 7-6(3), 6-4 win over Australia’s Marinko Matosevic.

The Spaniard will take on another Australian, Bernard Tomic, in the quarters. Tomic came back from a set down to defeat eighth-seeded Benjamin Becker 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.