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AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 22, 2016

Grigor Dimitrov

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

R. FEDERER/G. Dimitrov

6-4, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. You played him a couple weeks ago. How do you think this match was different? How do you think you did out there?
GRIGOR DIMITROV: Yeah, I mean, I think I obviously -- I felt I could have played better tennis throughout the whole match. After the second set, I was just getting a little flat, that's it. I mean, my goal this week in Australia was to play a lot of matches. I played around like 10 matches. I achieved what I wanted to, of course.

I was hoping to have a better result. I'm not going to lie. Losses like that always hurt, but in the same time I just lately haven't played that kind of matches I think. So, yeah. I mean, I could have done better. I mean, I'm not going to lie. Just haven't played that kind of matches on that level for a while.

It's good that I actually got the chance to do that a little bit back-to-back. Yeah, I mean, that's about it.

Q. I think I heard you tell the trainer your arm was hurting you.
GRIGOR DIMITROV: Just a little bit of a sore elbow. As I said, I played a lot of matches. I didn't have much time to rest. Especially after Brisbane, I got to Sydney, I was playing matches pretty much every day since Tuesday or Wednesday. I flew straight after the final, then came here, played on Monday. Even though I had like a day off in between, it's just not enough obviously.

It took a bit of time to adjust, to find the right tension on my racquet. There's just a lot of small components that were not in place.

But I knew that I'm risking that a little bit. And, yeah, I achieved what I wanted to in a way coming down to Australia. So, you know, I just keep my head up high right now and keep working and keep playing.

Q. Overall things are going the right direction for you? 2015 rankings-wise, things were going the other way. But you feel like now you're getting your footing back and headed in a positive direction?
GRIGOR DIMITROV: Yeah, I mean, I think slowly. Slowly, you know, the pieces are coming together. But obviously when you lose matches against obviously the top guys, there's a lot you can see that you can still work on. That I think is just a positive I think for our team. It's a good feedback in the same time to sort of see, you know, where we at right now, what we need to work.

And, yeah, just don't get discouraged in the same time. It's not like I'm losing every match or anything like that. I thought I played a good tennis at the beginning of the year, and that's important. Still a lot of tournaments to come ahead. So I'm really going to try to come out there and use all my confidence that I've built so far and, of course, keep trying.

I know that every match, it's a different match, different opponent. But right now I'm just focused on my game and what I'm doing.

Q. Do you think you might drop your schedule back a little bit to give you a little bit more space and time?
GRIGOR DIMITROV: We'll see. I mean, right now I dropped obviously a bit in the ranking. I've lost a lot of points. So in a way I need to play that to get to that level again.

After, of course. I mean, it's something that we going to discuss, you know, with the team and see how we going to sort of decide which tournaments we want to play and where we want to play in the same time. Of course, in the same time you don't want to fly back and forth everywhere.

But, yeah, right now the body feels well. I'm tired I think just mentally, mainly mentally than physically, after competing for, yeah, now four weeks almost.

So, yeah, I just need to relax a little bit and sort of look back at the weeks and sort of go through all the matches and see what we can, as I said, improve, see how the game is working so far.

Q. When you look back at the last year and a half or so, with some perspective now, do you see where you started to lose momentum or something might have started to go wrong?
GRIGOR DIMITROV: I think every season you learn a lot about yourself, I think, and of course a lot about the game, followed by everything else.

But I think, you know, obviously 2014 was an amazing year for me. But in a little bit of way I was just riding the wave. I was getting points after points, playing well all the tournaments, getting easier draw I think throughout the whole time. So that makes a bit of a difference.

Then, yeah, 2015 was just a rough season. I had problems with the racquets, you know, switching back and forth, changing the team. All that's a big factor, I think. It takes a little bit out of you. Your focus shifting a little bit. Next thing you know, you find yourself in a very tough spot. I think that's what happened with me.

But I can only learn from it.

Q. Do you think David Goffin can disturb Federer's game?
GRIGOR DIMITROV: Well, he's a great player. I mean, I know David pretty well. Played quite a few times with him. He's pretty talented, of course. I mean, whoever gets out there against whoever, you know, has a chance. You never know what's going to happen on that day. It can be your time. It can be your time of day to play well and win. Why not?

So, I mean, I think it's going to be a good match, that's for sure. I mean, it's really up to those two.

Q. Do you feel like with Franco now you have some more stability, a good platform to build off of?
GRIGOR DIMITROV: It's started off good. It's still fresh, it's still new. There's quite a few things to put in place. But, yeah, so far, you know, I can't complain. You know, in a way, also, I'm just focused right now on things, whatever I have to do, whether it's going to be practice, gym or whatever I have to do, I'm just there to do the work.

I think once you start doing that, once you get on a really good roll there, everything becomes like a habit. Then you know how it's going to work, so...

Q. Are you going to play Sofia? If so, are you looking forward to it?
GRIGOR DIMITROV: Right now we still don't know some of the tournaments we're going to play. We're not sure what we're going to do after. That's for sure. Obviously for me it's just very important to rest right now, to really rest and sort of look back at those weeks and see where we heading and what we want to do. That's pretty much it.

Q. You say you feel like you got what you wanted from Australia. At the end of the day I'm sure you wanted to go further.
GRIGOR DIMITROV: Of course.

Q. Looking back, would you have done anything differently? Do you feel it was important for you to play all those matches?
GRIGOR DIMITROV: No, no. I mean, it's actually one of the fewest times that I've played a tournament before a slam. It's been a while that I've done that.

I don't regret it. I don't regret any decisions I've taken so far.

Seems to pay off in a way, the work. As I say, I wanted to play a lot of matches. I did play a lot of matches. Lost to quality players, twice to Roger, once to Troicki. That's how it is.

Q. You've gotten a lot of attention in your career for off-court life stuff, even in Brisbane. I'm wondering how you keep that from being a distraction.
GRIGOR DIMITROV: Yeah, well, I mean, I'm really trying not to think about that. My private life is my private life. That's how it is. Whoever's next to me, it's my own business in a way.

You know, obviously I'm focused on what I do right now. That's it.

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