By Richard Pagliaro | @TennisNow | Thursday, August 8, 2024
Picture credit score: TennisTV Display screen Shot
A painful below-the-belt shot did not gradual Grigor Dimitrov’s roll in Montreal.
Watch Dimitrov endure the low blow ball to the groin, each male participant’s worst nightmare, within the early phases of his Montreal match vs. Rinky Hijikata.
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Dimitrov tried to deflect a Hijikata return after a fault, however missed the ball and suffered the physique blow to essentially the most delicate spot.
Hear followers within the crowd erupt in a sympathetic groan feeling Dimitrov’s ache because the battered Bulgarian bites down on his shirt and slowly strikes to the again wall attempting to stroll it off earlier than dropping to his knees in agony like a boxer felled by a below-the-belt punch.
Everybody felt that 🫣@GrigorDimitrov with an unlucky mishap at #OBN24… pic.twitter.com/VV35L8jJTS
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) August 8, 2024
Displaying exceptional resilience, Dimitrov not solely continued enjoying after the ball-busting shot, he really received the final 11 video games in a row to shut a 6-1, 6-0 conquer the Aussie qualifier.
Afterward, Dimitrov summed up the expertise as positively painful to the third diploma.
“It hurts. It hurts. It hurts,” Dimitrov informed Tennis Channel’s Prakash Amritraj afterward. “I used to be simply attempting to cease the ball after which it was type of windy so simply within the final second it moved and I didn’t transfer.
“For 3 or 4 video games it was no enjoyable.”
The seventh-seeded Dimitrov will face both 2023 US Open semifinalist Ben Shelton or Aussie Alexei Popyrin for a quarterfinal spot.
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