(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) He was the man to beat at this year's Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship. At World No 4, Grigor Dimitrov was the highest ranked men's player to come to the UAE for this ATP event. He had featured in two high profile finals and in between had lost in the Australian Open quarterfinal.
The dice was loaded in his favour but he could not play his game and 117th ranked wild card entrant, Malek Jaziri turned the tables on him for a 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 first round win.
"Unfortunately, I couldn't play my game to the extent that I was looking for. Movement was not good over the court. I thought I served okay for a little bit, but then I lost my rhythm again," the Bulgarian said at a post-match media briefing.
He added that he could not do much on the court. "All the credit to Malek (Jaziri). He played a good game. He was strong throughout the whole match. Actually, (he) was hitting pretty good shots. I mean, nothing to lose. Also, pretty much a lot of luck was on his side, let calls," Dimitrov pointed out.
"I couldn't control anything on my side," he said.
When asked if his shoulder was okay, Dimitrov refused to give excuses. "When you put everything together, there's no point to give any excuses right now. He deserves all the credit."
"Honestly, there's not much else for me to say except I need to keep on going with the same attitude. That's the only thing I feel like I can really work on right now," he believes.
"I mean, the rest, how the body will feel, all that, again, I can only control what I can control, the rehab, the right amount of treatment, the fitness side, the preventive side for anything. Yeah, all those things are going to come into play," he confessed.
"I expect to give 100% from myself, and I thought I did. As we saw, it was just not enough to kind of find my way into the game today. Therefore, that was the result," the Bulgarian explained.
The six feet two inch from Haskovo in Bulgaria ruled out time off from game. " No, I don't think so," he said in reply to a question if he would now take some rest. "I just had some time off. I don't think I'm slowing down. Again, the best thing is you have another match in about a week or two's time. I guess that's the positive side," he enthused.
Reflecting on his first round loss to Tunisian Jaziri, Dimitrov said: "This is I think my first first-round loss in quite some time now. In a way, that's the result. There's no point for me to really get too, too down on myself. Again, I think I had a good start of the season. Now is the time to push hard through."
Showing his determination to continue the good run he has had at this year so far, he said: "I'm going to kind of keep going with the same attitude, going to the gym, just preparing."
At the same time, he conceded: "Of course, it's not easy when you lose."
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