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AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 18, 2018

Grigor Dimitrov

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

G. DIMITROV/M. McDonald

4-6, 6-2, 6-4, 0-6, 8-6

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. How do you get through a match like that?
GRIGOR DIMITROV: Just with fight. I mean, those are the days I want to win. It's tough. It's tough to say many things right now. I guess I fought through. I fought through the match. I had to find a way to win. It was simple as that.

Really the game wasn't there today. I wasn't feeling well on the court. My movement was a little bit out of sorts. Yeah, fourth set was a disgrace. That's what's right now.

But I won with what I had. That was my fighting spirit, the experience. I mean, I felt I capitalized on just small other things of my game, the shots, certain ones, just good play all over the court. When it got to those tight moments, I thought I just played well.

Q. Often in a Grand Slam event, there's one day where you don't feel the game. Was it this kind of match? Do you feel since the start of the season your game isn't where you want it to be?
GRIGOR DIMITROV: I don't know, I thought I was playing well, especially starting in Brisbane. On the practice courts, I felt like I was doing the right things, moving well.

Today, it's just a hard day. I'm admitting it. I couldn't even hide it. You're right, sometimes you get those days. Today I landed on the good side of things.

I think in the past years, maybe I would have lost that match. Again, I need to be a little bit more good to myself, a little bit more positive, even if everything was kind of going against me.

Plus he played well, as well. I have to give him credit. He came out there and started swinging. Played an unbelievable first set. There was honestly not much I could have done. He was serving well, close to the lines, swinging freely, coming to the net, trying to play a different game. In a way, he knew that was the only way he could actually give me a trouble.

So, yeah, I'm glad that day is behind me and I landed on the good side. Overall the body feels well, so that's a good sign. I don't feel I wasted that much energy, even though I stayed over three hours on the court.

Yeah, I think just a good day of rest tomorrow, kind of reassess the match today, see maybe the reason why I didn't perform that well or why I couldn't raise up my game when I had to.

Yeah, I'm sure I'm going to find out for my next match. I think that's the beauty of tennis, you always get another day, you survive to another day. Every day is different. That's I think one of the hardest things, to keep that fine line throughout the days.

Grand Slam is a long way. It's a two-week tournament. Anything can happen. Right now I'm just positive, happy with the situation. You know, win ugly.

Q. The big match with Rafa last year, did that come into your mind? Did you learn anything from it that helped you tonight?
GRIGOR DIMITROV: As I said, this time I landed on a good side. I think those are the five sets that really matter.

But not really, to be honest. You're trying to stay in the present, stay in the moment. It was a tight game, especially in the fifth set.

The more you try to focus, the more you try to just kind of capitalize on your shots or on his mistakes. I really didn't think about that. I felt I had a lot of experience behind me. In a way, I didn't get too frustrated, I didn't get to tentative on certain shots. I was trying to be patient and play just a very simple game.

That was the biggest key for me today, like my experience overall, being in those matches. It was also knowing what it is to be in his shoes a little bit. I've been there playing at 7 p.m., prime time, Rod Laver, against a higher seed, nothing to lose. You come out there, you just play your game basically. You don't think about anything else.

Also I just knew I had to hang with him. It's going to be those little gaps I could have taken. That's what happened in the second and third set. It's just all my fault on the fourth. After that, I thought I was really locked in, despite all the mistakes I did on the court. I just knew I am going to get my moment, my chance. When that came, I grabbed it.

Q. What happened in the fourth set?
GRIGOR DIMITROV: I played a very sloppy game, the first game. I kind of, yeah, drifted away on that set. I just felt if I could have had maybe another look or break back, things would have been different. After that, the set just kind of run away from me.

It's all my fault. Simple as that. I kind of, like, neglected some of the games. I didn't constructed the point well. I didn't serve to the right spots. Yeah, you pay for it.

Q. Do you get to a certain stage in a set like that where you've lost a couple of service games where you think the set is gone, you have to regroup, concentrate for the next set?
GRIGOR DIMITROV: Yes and no. Depends on the stage of the match. Today it wasn't the case. I kind of felt the set itself slipped away from me. Also part of me just wanted to try certain shots because I felt like the whole match was kind of playing only one game. I just kind of wanted to provoke him to play a different game to see if he's going to kind of break down or start making different mistakes.

I mean, that's what I said, he played an unbelievable match, I felt. A lot of the shots that he was hitting on the run, especially on the run on the forehand, they were passing almost like sometimes millimeters over the net. Honestly, there's not much more I could have done in that particular set.

Again, if I would have had the chance to have a break back, then things would have looked different. But I definitely should not allow that in the future.

Q. Did you see anything when you were hitting against him that you thought he might be able to bring into your match tonight? Was that totally surprising?
GRIGOR DIMITROV: I mean, I was not entirely surprised. I knew he's going to play well, again, because you come out here and you just play your match basically. He has nothing to lose. Won four matches out here already, three quallies. I saw his first match a little bit.

He built self-confidence as well. Any player like this, the more you get in a good rhythm, the more you have good matches behind you, if you can go for certain shots a little bit more, try to push your opponent, provoke him in a different way, I think that was his thing today.

I just knew he's going to play a different game. That's what I said, at times he was almost a little unorthodox, come in, chip and charge, big second serve.

I mean, I understand the reason why he did it. Also in a way he wanted to try to surprise me and catch me off guard. I think that was something he played really well throughout the whole match.

Obviously I just felt that I had things under control, especially in the fifth set. Quite a few games I had Love-30, and I wasn't able to kind of turn the games around. Yeah, I just stayed focused.

Q. It seemed that Dani in your box was going through a lot of emotions. It's making the rounds on social media. Do you see these kind of reactions?
GRIGOR DIMITROV: What did he do?

Q. He was emotional. Do you watch the box at all?
GRIGOR DIMITROV: Yeah, I mean, of course. We live together, we breathe together, we eat together. We're together the whole day. I understand it. It's also frustrating for him to sit on the side and watch me not playing my game, watch me making easy mistakes, anything like that.

I don't blame him, to be honest. It's great. I think it's nice, I mean, to show emotion, the good kind of emotions. I mean, I know also at some point he was even pissed at me. I was pissed myself.

This is how it is. That's what tennis does to you sometimes. Even sometimes when I take the towel with myself, I'm just yelling and pissed. That's also a way to kind of vent and prepare yourself for the next points.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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