	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

BRISBANE INTERNATIONAL

January 2, 2019

Grigor Dimitrov

Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

G. DIMITROV/J. Millman

6-3, 6-4

Q. Grigor, it started really well. I know you played a good match overall, but things got a little complicated in that second set. What did you think?
GRIGOR DIMITROV: Yeah, I had a couple of things get into my head and into my game that I was not really I don't want to say interested in doing, but things that I thought I did well throughout the whole match, all of a sudden I was just not doing them well, and I let that be a little bit of a distraction. But, anyway, I thought I was in control throughout the whole match. I felt that when he was serving in his service games, I was really sort of rallying and playing good tennis, so in a way, I was not that worried to the extent that I was panicking. I was two breaks up and all of a sudden it's 4-4. But, yeah, it's good to have a win.

Q. Playing against someone like John in that setting where he's got the home crowd with him, especially in that second set, how do you feel that and how did you manage that on the court?
GRIGOR DIMITROV: I remember what happened last year. Yeah. I mean obviously I thought about that in the past days, since I knew that I had to play against him, and I was just trying to do things that were better than last year. And I mean, full credit, full respect to him. He's an unbelievable fighter, as we saw again today, especially in that second set. So I have to be ready in any areas that I could think of. And, again, the same thing, he's the set could have easily gone the other way, but as I said, I managed to keep my composure really good throughout the whole match, especially at 4-4, that game that I played was really good. And, yeah, I moved on to a better finish.

Q. Got a difficult quarterfinal, match against Nishikori. How are you feeling about that at this stage of the season?
GRIGOR DIMITROV: It's great. I mean it's right off the blocks. It's perfect to play a match like that to kind of see where your game is at, how your movement goes. Of course, I mean Kei is always the favorite. Right now he's been playing unbelievable, great finish of the year, a lot of confidence right now, striking the ball, amazing, feels free. So, of course, if you look at everything on paper, it looks great, but, again, I like my chances. We've had quite a few battles against each other, and there's always been tough matches, but, yeah, I'm just going to prepare the same way that I prepare in the past days. I'm going to prepare the same way that I want to play. So I'm just going to try to control things on my terms. And whatever the outcome is, I don't know. Hopefully it's good.

Q. Have you been having the same sort of relaxing time off the court in Brisbane like you did in 2017?
GRIGOR DIMITROV: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I don't forget my hoops, my arcades, my car games. Everything is just same ol', same ol' for the past eight years. So nothing has changed.

But, yeah, I mean I always try to get a bit of down time in the afternoons. I think it's nice. It helps me beat the jet lag. I'm pretty good for now. So, yeah, keep things simple.

Q. Nishikori is such a tough customer, but I think sometimes it's hard to tell what he does so well on the court.
GRIGOR DIMITROV: Oh, yeah. In a way you know what to expect, but there's times when he starts playing some tennis that you've never seen. Obviously, I mean, as a player, I know what to expect at times, but, again, I don't know what he's going to bring to the table tomorrow. All I know he's one of the best movers out there, so that is one thing for sure. And then we'll see how the game is going to be. If I'm able to strip down some of his shots early on, that would be for sure helpful to me. But overall he's got weapons, so it's definitely not an easy match for me.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297