Bulgarian tennis star Grigor Dimitrov continues has said he is not yet ready to compete at the highest level in tennis as he continues to suffer from fatigue after being diagnosed with COVID-19.
The former top-10 player tested positive for the virus a month ago after withdrawing from the controversy-stricken Adria Tour, which was criticised over its policy towards anti-COVID measures. It was during the time of the event where founder Novak Djokovic, Borna Coric, Viktor Troicki and some coaching staff also contracted the virus. All have now tested negative for the since then.
Dimitrov returned to action over the weekend at the Ultimate Tennis Showdown in France, where he lost both of his matches to Feliciano Lopez and Richard Gasquet. Speaking to Tennis Majors, the world No.19 admits that he is not finding his recovery easy.
“Clearly I’m not ready to compete at the highest level right now,” Dimitrov told Tennis Majors.
“The movement is getting better, everything else is kind of going in the right direction but it’s still not easy to recover.
“The virus was hard on me so I stayed home for about a month.
“I was not breathing well, was not feeling well. (I was) tired, you know, all the symptoms, had no taste, no smell.
“Everything you could possibly think of so it was no fun.”
One of the biggest issues Dimitrov is currently facing concerns fatigue on the court. He says at the moment there are times where he needs to ‘completely shut down’ and recover from physical activity. According to a report published by the World Health Organisation in February, the average time for somebody to recover from a mild case of COVID-19 is roughly two weeks. However, more severe cases could require up to six weeks to recover.
“In a way I’m lucky to be on the court right now,” he said.
“You don’t know. One day I feel really well and I have four hours to be out but then all of a sudden I need to completely shut down and take a nap, or just rest.”
It wasn’t just the physical issues the 29-year-old had to contend with. Dimitrov admits he found coping with the virus mentally tough and experienced some ‘bad thoughts’ during his time in isolation.
“Of course (there are mental struggles). I mean, you’re alone 20 days for about 24 hours … so of course a lot of things are going through your head,” he said.
“It doesn’t matter how mentally strong you are, I think as a person, an athlete or anything, it’s inevitable to get some bad thoughts in your head so I had to deal with that too.
“This thing is real. If we take the right precautions and everybody is safe, things will get better quicker.
“But it’s a strange time so you have to work not only on your physical but on your mental aspect as well.”
The ATP Tour has been suspended since March 9th due to the Virus, but officials are set to resume proceedings next month. The Tour was initially set to start at the Citi Open in Washington but has since been cancelled. Instead the first tournament will be at the Western and Southern Open which will start on August 24th in New York.
Dimitrov has won eight ATP titles so far in his career and is a three-time Grand Slam semi-finalist.
A Tennis Majors exclusive : Covid-19 was "hard" on Dimitrov, and return to play has been challenging. Listen to him 👇#UTS #tennis #covid pic.twitter.com/zz279RW5ig
— Tennis Majors (@Tennis_Majors) July 26, 2020
