defeated Pole Łukasz Kubot again in two tight sets, two weeks after he had beaten him in the Swiss Open quarterfinal. He fell in the second round to the 12th seed, Gilles Simon – his fourth loss against Simon (whom he has never beaten). On hard courts, Dimitrov has failed to qualify for Rogers Cup and Western & Southern Open. In both Masters tournaments, he lost in the first round of the qualifying round to Marco Chiudinelli and Rajeev Ram respectively. Dimitrov suffered a first lost at the final slam of the year, the US Open to Benoît Paire in four sets. He ended his drought at the PTT Thailand Open, reaching the second round before losing to Richard Gasquet in three tight sets. He then qualified for the Japan Open, but fell to Juan Mónaco in straight sets. At the Masters event of Shanghai, he defeated Pablo Andújar before losing to world No. 2 Novak Djokovic. At the Swiss Indoors Basel Dimitrov reached the quarterfinals, defeating Viktor Troicki in straight sets and Julien Benneteau in three tie-break sets, before losing to Paul-Henri Mathieu in two tie-break sets. His next tournament was the BNP Paribas Masters, after receiving an entry from the qualifying draw. He beat Jürgen Melzer before his 2012 campaign ended at the hands of Juan Mónaco. Dimitrov ended 2012 ranked World No. 48 in singles. 2013: First ATP title Dimitrov began his 2013 season by competing at the Brisbane International. He defeated Brian Baker, world No. 13 Milos Raonic, Jürgen Melzer, and Marcos Baghdatis to reach his first ATP singles final, thus becoming the first Bulgarian player to reach an ATP final. He lost to world No. 3 and defending champion Andy Murray in straight sets, despite being a break up in both sets. Dimitrov paired Kei Nishikori in the doubles and reached the semifinals, but withdrew due to Nishikori's injury. This performance also meant that Dimitrov surpassed $1 million earned in prize money, a feat which no other male Bulgarian tennis player has accomplished. In his next event, the Apia International, Dimitrov suffered a first-round straight-set loss to Italian Fabio Fognini. At the Australian Open, Dimitrov suffered a first-round straight-set defeat by Julien Benneteau. He also competed in the men's doubles event with Marcos Baghdatis. The pair defeated fourth seeds Max Mirnyi and Horia Tecău in the second round, before losing to Juan Sebastián Cabal and