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| - Grigor Dimitrov says with a little luck he can do damage and go deep at the French Open, as the Bulgarian shapes up for Thursday's quarter-finals in Geneva. The former world number three's best achievement at the Parisian Grand Slam was reaching the fourth round last year and the 30-year-old feels he is capable of better. Dimitrov has had a rough clay season, losing at the first hurdle in Madrid and Rome. However, he is looking to put that right in Geneva, accepting a late wildcard into the Swiss warm-up tournament ahead of the French Open, which starts on May 30. The world number 20 faces Uruguayan qualifier Pablo Cuevas for a spot in Friday's semi-finals. "I've been quite misfortunate in the past two or three matches that I've played -- Madrid, Rome. It could be very discouraging," Dimitrov told reporters. "The field here is quite tough: a lot of great players playing on a clay court, a lot of good fighters. "It's great that we have one more week afer this to prepare for the French to tune up, to rest up. "For the French Open, I've always been very conservative on myself. I've had good results and not so good. "I know when I'm physically well, mentally well, strong enough in my body, I can do the damage and go very far in this tournament," he said of Paris. "I'm here in Geneva playing again and after that one more tournament on clay -- its the French Open, and here we go. Save the best for last." Dimitrov, who won the 2017 ATP World Tour Finals, said he was still not at peak performance but was building towards it. "It's a process. This year has been good, bad and so-so at the same time for me," said the Geneva fourth seed. "You never know when the luck can turn around." In Thursday's other quarter-finals in Geneva Pablo Andujar, who knocked out top seed Roger Federer in the round of 16, faces teenager Dominic Stricker, the 2020 French Open boys' champion. The 18-year-old world number 419 gave Swiss tennis fans hope for the future on Wednesday when he became the youngest player from his country to reach an ATP quarter-final since Federer at Copenhagen in 2000. Stricker followed up his shock first round win over 2014 US Open champion Marin Cilic -- his first ever match on the senior tour -- by knocking out Hungary's Marton Fucsovics, who won the 2018 Geneva title. Canadian second seed Denis Shapovalov takes on Serbia's Laslo Djere. Norwegian third seed Casper Ruud -- one of the impressive clay-court performers in recent months, making the Monte Carlo, Munich and Madrid semis -- faces Germany's Dominik Koepfer. rjm/nl/dmc/td
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