Grigor Dimitrov not ashamed of his tears following defeat to Novak Djokovic

James Richardson
Novak Djokovic Grigor Dimitrov
Grigor Dimitrov wipes his face after losing against Novak Djokovic at the Paris Masters.

Grigor Dimitrov says that his tears on court following his loss to Novak Djokovic were not out of sadness.

Dimitrov admitted that he was overcome with emotion after losing to Djokovic in straight sets but felt that his run in Paris was worth celebrating.

The Bulgarian believes that his run was a triumph for his spirit and a great encouragement to him.

He would go on to concede that he was gutted to lose a final

“It’s difficult to explain emotions, I think,” Dimitrov said when asked why he broke down after the loss.

“You want it. You know, it’s tough when it doesn’t happen. Only I know, in a way, without, like, feeling sorry for myself, what I’ve gone through the past months on and off the court.

“Those are happy tears. I don’t want to have them as something negative. I’m human, after all. At the end of the day, I think just the buildup not only of the last two weeks, the last months of hard work and the big trip in China, everything has been kind of, in a way, snowballing like day after day, match after match.

“Of course in the end I was so close to making something that I wanted to do for such a long time. I don’t want to have this as a goal is just to win the tournament, but it was just more of my mental and physical way that I was dealing with and through these past months.

“Yeah, I mean, I’m not ashamed of them. It just happened. I’m sad. Of course I’m sad that I lost. It’s never fun when you lose in a final. I think for me now I have some time to reflect and move on.”

Dimitrov admitted that he struggled to match the level of play produced by Djokovic.

He commended the world No 1 while saying that he also felt like he struggled to get going.

“Yeah, I think today, specifically today, his depth was amazing I think on the ball,” Dimitrov remarked.

“Even if he was not feeling maybe physically at his best and all that, but he was able to put me in a very uncomfortable position and made me work for every shot. I also think my serve today didn’t work at all.

“Overall I was a little bit flat. That’s also my, like, summary of the match. But of course Novak in the finals is probably one of the biggest achievement you can have in our sport to beat him.

“I mean, so much respect for him. The way he’s competing on the court is, I think, I mean, on a completely different level. I have said it before. I think also when it comes to those clutch matches, he’s always been able to maximize his game, even if it’s not at his best, but he’s been able to maximize and put you in uncomfortable situations.

“On that end today I think he executed a lot of points and games in a very good way.”

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