He was one of four players to contract the disease during the controversial Adria Tour, the competition of Novak Djokovic. On the road to recovery, the former world n ° 3 Gregor Dimitrov still sometimes suffers from the effects of the disease and struggles to regain his level of play. "For the moment, I am not ready to compete at a high level" explains- he at the Tennis Majors website. “I was away from the pitch for a month, I'm mainly looking to get back on my feet and get useful information for the future. (…) I move on, but it is not easy to recover from the illness I had. "The Bulgarian explains that he was very hard hit by the disease:" I suffered a severe form of the virus, I was confined at home for a month without being able to play. I think I had everything one can have: I was breathing badly, I was tired, I had no taste or smell. " Dimitrov even explains that he had doubts about the rest of his career: “You spend twenty days alone, twenty-four hours a day. Do the math. I must have spent five thousand hours alone (480 actually editor's note), wanting to sleep. Obviously, you think a lot. It's inevitable to have negative thoughts at such times, however strong your mental strength as a top athlete. "
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Elimination in the first round at UTS
At the Ultimate Tennis Showdown, the exhibition tournament organized by Patrick Mouratoglou, his first post-illness, Dimitrov lost his first two matches (against Richard Gasquet (4-0) and Feliciano Lopez (3-2)) and is already eliminated before his match against Alexei Popyrin. He has one month left to recover his faculties and prepare for the US Open from August 31 to September 13, before that he will potentially line up for the Washington Tournament and / or the Cincinnati Masters.
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