“Only I know what I’ve gone through” – Dimitrov on tearful end to Paris-Bercy final

There was a touching moment at the end of the Rolex Paris Masters final as champion Novak Djokovic delayed the start of his media duties to go over and embrace a weeping Grigor Dimitrov.

The Bulgarian was asked about it in his press conference, and he responded: “It’s difficult to explain emotions, I think. You want it. 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.

“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.

“Of course in the end I was so close to making something that I wanted to do for such a long time. 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.”

Dimitrov: Don’t forget your inner peace

And he talked about his process of reflection, and what that has looked like for him in recent years.

“I think there are so many things that come to one’s mind. On a daily basis, I’m sure you have a lot of thoughts that are coming to your head on daily basis, right, when you go for a walk and stuff. For me, I’m just like that.

“I think there are times throughout the day where, as I said, I take some time for myself to just go for a walk and put my phone away. There is always like a period throughout the day that I always take for myself, and I think that’s also what I’m very happy with.

“It’s a work. It’s an internal work, as well. It’s not just outside. It’s not just stepping out on the centre court. It’s a lot of work on the court. Of course the fitness, you know, the nutrition, the sleep, rest, and all that. But lastly, don’t ever forget yourself, because just as the tennis, the sport, everything is so important to you, you don’t need to forget your inner world, your inner peace.

“And I work hard on that. Of course there’s always two sides of everything, so you need to make sure you feed the right wolf.”

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