Kevin King earned his first tour-level win in stunning fashion Tuesday night, defeating Grigor Dimitrov, an eight-time tour champion, 7-5, 6-4 in the BB&T Atlanta Open.
King, 28 and No. 405 in the world rankings, now advances to the second round of the tournament, which he qualified for as a wild card. King, an Atlanta native and a two-time All-American at Georgia Tech, had never beaten anyone in the top 80. He’ll try again for another upset soon, as his next match will come Thursday against No. 2-seed Taylor Fritz.
“It was incredible,” King told the ATP Tour website after the match. “It seemed he wasn’t quite at 100%, so it definitely gave me some looks in his service games. But I was glad to be able to close it out at the end.
“It’s great to celebrate it a little bit now with my friends and family out there, but I’ll go back, do a little recovery and start focusing on the next match.”
