Grigor Dimitrov: “Coronavirus was hard on me, I couldn’t breath well”

Grigor Dimitrov talks about his battle against the Coronavirus

By
Mark Hall
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Grigor Dimitrov

Grigor Dimitrov is back to competitions in the second edition of the Ultimate Tennis Showdown (UTS) that is played at the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy.

The Bulgarian sensation was part of the Adria Tour where he got infected by the Coronavirus. When back home in Monte Carlo he had to face a 1-month battle before recovering. However, he has recently revealed that he is not completely out of the woods for now. Dimitrov lost both matches he played at the US against Richard Gasquet (0-4) and Feliciano Lopez (2-3).

Grigor Dimitrov and his battle vs. Coronavirus

During an interview, Grigor admitted that he is not ready to play at the very best right now to comment:

“It’s still not easy, I think, to recover. The virus was hard on me. I stayed home for about a month. I was not breathing well, I was not feeling well, tired. All the symptoms. I had no taste, no smell, everything that you can possibly think.

“You just don’t know. One day I feel really well, and I have about four hours to be out but then all of a sudden I just completely shut down, I take a nap, or I just rest.

Of course, you are alone 20 days for about 24 hours a day. You can do the math.  I’ve spent about 5,000 hours by myself [wrong math…he was mening 500]. It doesn’t matter how strong you are, I think as a person, athlete, or anything, it’s inevitable not to get some bad thoughts in your head.

We should not underestimate the power of the mental state that everybody [feels]. This thing is real, if we take precautions and everybody is safe, then things will get better quicker.”

Dimitrov at the US Open

Grigor Dimitrov in 2020

Grigor Dimitrov Stats info

Now the world no.19, the Bulgarian played his last match on the 28th of February when he lost to Rafael Nadal 6-3 6-2 in the semifinal in Acapulco.

Grigor Dimitrov’s most significant result of the present year was getting to the semi-finals in Acapulco.