It was a difficult afternoon for Dimitrov who struggled to find his rhythm and hit 13 unforced errors. Lajovic seized on his opponent's inconsistent shot selection and finally broke serve at 3-3.

Dimitrov came out the gate strong in the second set, holding serve before converting his first break point of the match.

The two players exchanged breaks of serve and the Bulgarian started to find his range from the baseline, striking eight more winners and cutting down on unforced errors as he began to take control.

Under pressure, Lajovic continued to make errors, notably missing an easy volley at set point to hand the Bulgarian the set.

However, all that momentum was lost at the beginning of the third set, when Lajovic managed to break Dimitrov's serve for the fourth time.

This proved to be a decisive moment in the match, as both players would hold serve until the Serbian fired off an ace at match point to send the world no. 8 crashing out of the tournament.

Lajovic now faces No. 5 seed Kyle Edmund, after the Briton saw off Italian qualifier Matteo Berrettini 7-5, 6-7, 7-5 in a grueling encounter that lasted nearly three hours.

No. 1 seed Juan Martin del Potro won his second round tie in straight sets, but was pushed all the way by Russia's Karen Khachanov on the way to a 6-4, 7-6 win.

Both players were notably strong on serve throughout the match, but del Potro's break in the very first game proved to be enough to seal the first set, having made Khachanov work with some powerful baseline forehands.

【体坛英语资讯：Home hero Zhang into China Open third round】相关文章：

★ 娱乐英语资讯：Britney Spears revealing reality

★ 体坛英语资讯：Alonso and Hamilton wait on FIA hearings

★ 体坛英语资讯：Chinese champ pushes big seed at China Open

★ 体坛英语资讯：Gonzalez stuns Federer in round-robin in Shanghai

★ 娱乐英语资讯：Paris tones down the bling

★ 娱乐英语资讯：Emotional Jackie Chan buries father in Australia

★ 体坛资讯：Chinese road riders taste acceleration through studying abroad

★ 体坛英语资讯：Inter maintain lead with 2-0 win at Fiorentina

★ 娱乐英语资讯：Sharon Stone apologizes over karma remarks

★ 体坛英语资讯：China trounces Singapore 7-1 in AFC U-19