Grigor Dmitrov has opened up recently about contracting the coronavirus during the Adria Tour. He mentioned that he is now having to deal with the symptoms and isn’t sure if it will affect him long term. Dmitrov recently competed at the Ultimate Tennis Showdown (UTS) in France, his first competition since contracting the virus. “This thing is real,” said Dimitrov. “The virus and how everything is handled. The toughest part is that we just don’t know. For everyone, not only for athletes. The uncertainly is what gets you the most.”
“I was active all my life and then suddenly I was forced to be shut down, just physically, so it’s like you’re taking my wings away but somehow I found a way to try and understand what is going on and the more I thought about it things are happening at a basic rate so if we are careful, we do the right things, things will be alright we have to absolutely respect the process of what is going on.”
“I don’t mind being on my own, and I think I’ve managed pretty well over the years. I’ve pretty much lived on my own since I was 12-year-old,” he said. “That doesn’t scare me. It was the uncertainty of having to deal with health issues.” Dmitrov lost 7 pounds during the 3 weeks which he isolated for but admits the mental isolation was the worst.
“I really didn’t feel well. I had very different symptoms with not being able to taste any food that I was eating and my smell was gone. I’m not even 100 per cent back to myself in those departments but at least I’m trying to get there every day. I was just not active I was fearing my body shutting down, which is the biggest fear for any athlete. You always try to stay in shape, you eat well, you sleep well, you have a good discipline about things, but you come out of the other end and it’s like so much had changed.
“It’s inevitable to play mind games when you come out and you lose trust in the body. You don’t know how you’re going to bounce back and how you’re going to feel. You kind of question if you’re going to back 100 per cent.” he added. “On a positive note, I’ve done a lot of heart tests and blood tests which all seemed to check out fine. You just kind of got to be patient with it and hopefully in a month or so I’ll be back at full force to do everything and there won’t be any further repercussions after.”
