Dubai: Top seed and hot favourite Grigor Dimitrov will change nothing in his game despite being sent home packing by rank outsider Malek Jaziri in the opening round of the Dubai Duty Free Men’s Open late on Tuesday.
Playing without any pressure against the world No. 4, Jaziri fought back from back from a one-set deficit to win 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 in two hours and eleven minutes against an opponent ranked 113 places above him. The loss did not, however, throw a dampener in the world No. 4’s ongoing schedule for the season heading into next week’s double Masters header in Indian Wells and Miami.
“I don’t think I’m slowing down. I just had some time off. The best thing is I have another match in about a week or two and I guess that’s the positive side. I’m going to kind of keep going with the same attitude, going to the gym, just preparing,” Dimitrov told media late on Tuesday.
“Of course, it’s not easy when you lose. 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. Yeah, for sure the next events, I don’t shy away. I feel like I’m going to be ready,” he added.
Given the top seeding in Dubai following the absence of former seven-time champion and world No. 1 Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray, Dimitrov felt he had the game to see himself go deep into the tournament here.
“Even now, I thought I could progress with each match. All those first matches here are always tough. And it really doesn’t matter if some of the higher guys or top seeds are not here. Everyone is going to play well out here and that’s the situation now, I guess,” he added.
Dimitrov was effusive in his praise of his opponent from Tunisia. “All credit to Malek. He played a good game. He was strong throughout the whole match and he was actually hitting pretty good shots. I mean, he had nothing to lose. Also pretty much a lot of luck was on his side. You control what you can control. Tonight I couldn’t control anything on my side,” he lamented.
“When you put everything together, there’s no point to give any excuses right now. He deserves all the credit. He’s the one that went through the match,” he added.
