Grigor Dimitrov has explained why he was in tears following his one-sided defeat to Novak Djokovic in the Rolex Paris Masters final. The world No 17 enjoyed a resurgent week, reaching his first Masters final in more than six years. But he fell at the last hurdle as Djokovic dispatched him 6-4 6-3. After being spotted crying on his bench, Dimitrov said that only he knew what he had been through over the last few months.
Dimitrov’s fairytale run ended in disappointment as Djokovic needed just 98 minutes to beat him in Sunday’s final, with the Bulgarian failing to set up any break point chances and hitting 16 unforced errors. The world No 17 covered his face with his towel as he retreated to his bench after the loss and cried, with Djokovic also coming over to console him.
There was a smile on his face once again when the crowd started chanting his name and he shared his gratitude in a heartfelt runner-up speech. And Dimitrov later opened up on why he started crying as he admitted they were both happy tears and the product of frustration in defeat. “It’s difficult to explain emotions, I think. You want it,” the former world No 3 said.
“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.”
Reflecting on his recent run – which also includes semi-final appearances at the Shanghai Masters and in Chengdu, and a quarter-final in Beijing – Dimitrov admitted that there was also a release of emotion following a strong end to the season. He continued: “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.”
Dimitrov will now return to the world’s top 15 following his run to a second Masters title, but the 32-year-old was also disappointed not to go all the way in Bercy. “Of course in the end I was so close to making something that I wanted to do for such a long time,” he added.
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“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.”
While it wasn’t to be in Sunday’s final, Dimitrov is now hoping that he can keep putting himself in the position to win titles, with his last coming at the 2017 ATP Finals. Reflecting on his week, he said: “I don’t want to say much, just because I have not thought about it too, too much, but the one thing I know for sure is that I just want to put myself in those positions every single time, which means that every time I get out there to play is like I’m there to play.”
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