Grigor Dimitrov has declared that his time away from tennis \u201creally did me good\u201d ahead of his much-anticipated return from injury at the 2025 Paris Masters.<\/p>\n
The Bulgarian star has not played since suffering a tear in his right pectoral muscle in his fourth round Wimbledon contest with Jannik Sinner in July.<\/p>\n
Dimitrov<\/a> was leading Sinner, who was the world No 1 at the time, 6-3, 7-5, 2-2 on Centre Court when he was cruelly and suddenly forced to retire due to the injury.<\/p>\n The 2017 ATP Finals champion revealed on July 11, four days after his retirement against Sinner, that he had undergone surgery and described having to retire as \u201cone of the most painful moments of my career.\u201d<\/p>\n The 34-year-old had been playing inspired tennis against Sinner at Wimbledon and he was in with a real chance of completing a huge upset that would have ranked as one of the finest wins of his career. Sinner went on to claim his maiden Wimbledon crown, defeating Carlos Alcaraz in the final.<\/p>\n Dimitrov\u2019s Wimbledon heartbreak was the latest instance of his body breaking down at Grand Slam tournaments as he became the first player in the Open Era to retire mid-match at five consecutive majors.<\/p>\n The former world No 3 was leading 6-2, 6-3, 2-6 against Ethan Quinn in the opening round at the 2025 French Open when a thigh injury rendered him unable to continue.<\/p>\n At the 2025 Australian Open, Dimitrov was forced to retire in the second set of his first round match with Francesco Passaro. He\u00a0was also unable to finish his 2024 US Open quarter-final against Frances Tiafoe and his 2024 Wimbledon last 16 clash with Daniil Medvedev due to injuries.<\/p>\n Ahead of his Paris Masters comeback, Dimitrov revealed he was in a good place and spoke about his positive approach in the aftermath of the injury.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m doing very well, taking a step back from tennis really did me good,\u201d Dimitrov was quoted as saying by L\u2019Equipe (translated from French).<\/p>\n \u201cIt was the first time in almost twenty years that I could really be at home for the summer, so I took advantage of these moments. I wasn\u2019t really following what was happening on the tour, I wasn\u2019t trying to stay connected.<\/p>\n The best \u2018under pressure\u2019 players according to the ATP rankings with surprise name in No 1<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Predicting Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner\u2019s pathways to Paris Masters final showdown<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n \u201cIt was important to really let go. I realised that it\u2019s normal to be injured, it\u2019s normal not to play every week. I accepted all of that and I\u2019m just very happy to be back.<\/p>\n \u201cSurprisingly, I was strong. I didn\u2019t see it as a negative, although there were doubts, of course. To say that everything went perfectly would be wrong. But I know how to deal with these things, not just injuries, but also anything mental.\u201d<\/p>\n The Bulgarian recognised that a number of factors could have been behind his injury, but asserted that he will \u201cnever know\u201d the cause.<\/p>\n \u201cI did everything I could to avoid asking myself that question,\u201d Dimitrov added.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s impossible to have an answer. We know what our schedule looks like: the number of tournaments, weeks, the workload\u2026 We always take that risk.<\/p>\n \u201cIs it bad luck? Maybe. The schedule? Maybe. A lack of preparation? Maybe. But we\u2019ll never know. There\u2019s no point wasting energy looking for an explanation we won\u2019t find.\u201d<\/p>\n Dimitrov, who was a runner-up at the 2023 Paris Masters, will face world No 56 Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard in the opening round of the Masters 1000 event on Monday. It will be his first encounter with the huge-serving Frenchman.<\/p>\n The 34-year-old will also partner Nicolas Mahut, a former world No 1 in doubles, in what will be the last event of the 43-year-old Frenchman\u2019s career.<\/p>\n \u201cWe always wanted to do a few double sessions together throughout the last years, but I was honestly never really able to commit,\u201d Dimitrov said of Mahut to ATPTour.com.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was the right time. It was the last tournament for him and it made sense. I have a very sentimental relationship with him.<\/p>\n \u201cFor so many years, we played against each other. We competed more than once on such a big occasion. So it\u2019s safe to say that it\u2019s a good ending for him.\u201d<\/p>\n READ NEXT: Inside the stunning new venue for the 2025 Paris Masters<\/a> The post Grigor Dimitrov speaks out about his Wimbledon injury ahead of Paris Masters comeback<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Grigor Dimitrov has declared that his time away from tennis \u201creally did me good\u201d ahead of his much-anticipated return from injury at the 2025 Paris Masters. The Bulgarian star has not played since suffering a tear in his right pectoral muscle in his fourth round Wimbledon contest with Jannik Sinner in July. Dimitrov was leading […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1233\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Grigor Dimitrov opens up ahead of his return from injury<\/h2>\n
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What Dimitrov said about his time away from tennis<\/h2>\n
Tennis Features<\/h2>\n
What Dimitrov said about the possible causes of the injury<\/h2>\n
Who will Dimitrov face at the Paris Masters?<\/h2>\n
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