Grigor Dimitrov isn’t taking his resurgence for granted

Grigor Dimitrov said he is grateful for every match he gets to play at this stage of his career and isn’t taking his results for granted.

Dimitrov reached the final of the Paris Masters with a three-set upset of Stefanos Tsitsipas.

He said afterwards that the win meant to lot to him and there was great significance for him in gaining another big final.

“It means a lot to me for so many different reasons,” Dimitrov said after beating Tsitsipas.

“I don’t take this very lightly in a sense that, I mean, I appreciate it a lot because I know how difficult it has been for me, certain tournaments and months throughout the year. So I guess this came at the right time.

“I don’t know. I don’t know what to say. I think getting to this final means a lot more to me than some, I think even some moments, some big moments in my career.

“Right now I’m just staying in the moment. I have one more match to play. I’m going to give it all. What’s gonna happen, I don’t know. But I’d say this week means, from a very different perspective to me, a lot.”

Dimitrov said that he knew he needed to be dialled in when the match came down to a decisive tiebreak.

“Well, sometimes you get moments like this, I think, throughout the match that you kind of read everything through a little bit more,” Dimitrov said.

“And for me, he was serving again so well throughout the second set and I think the third set, as well. I wasn’t really able to get on a lot of points on his serve.

“When the tiebreak began, I said to myself, Okay, he’s been playing very solid. I have been doing a lot of good things right. But in the same time, I have been very, like, solid throughout the whole match. So, I need to lean on the things that I did well.

“Of course, a couple of serves here and there, I read them very well. Great returns, attack the ball. Yeah, next thing you know, I was far ahead in the tiebreak.

“So that was already a big thing.”

Dimitrov singled out saving a pair of break points in a crucial third set game as turning point for him in the contest.

“I think the game that I saved at 15-40 in the third set, like, that was a big game.

“I would say that played, like, a crucial moment for me, because the momentum could have changed completely and then the match could have gotten away from me.

“I mean, it could have gone — again, it’s one of those matches that could have gone either way. I think that even the previous times that we’ve played against each other has always been like this. I feel like we know our game fairly well, and then in the same time there were moments that went his way, then it went my way, then it went his way.

“That’s just how it is in such a match. I mean, it could have gone either way. I just felt like in the important moments throughout the match, I was very, very solid.”

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