Grigor Dimitrov says he’s still feeling the frightening effects of coronavirus over a month after testing positive at the Adria Tour.
Dimitrov, 29, played in the Ultimate Tennis Showdown in France last weekend (another exhibition event), but the experience told him he was nowhere near ready to play on the professional circuit at the moment.
“Clearly I’m not ready to compete at the highest level right now,” Dimitrov told Tennis Majors.
“The movement is getting better, everything else is kind of going in the right direction but it’s still not easy to recover.
“The virus was hard on me so I stayed home for about a month.
“I was not breathing well, was not feeling well. (I was) tired, you know, all the symptoms, had no taste, no smell. Everything you could possibly think of so it was no fun.
“In a way, I’m lucky to be on the court right now.
“You don’t know. One day I feel really well and I have four hours to be out but then all of a sudden I need to completely shut down and take a nap, or just rest.”
Dimitrov also said he struggled mentally during the recovery period.
“Of course (there are mental struggles). I mean, you’re alone 20 days for about 24 hours … so of course a lot of things are going through your head,” he said.
“It doesn’t matter how mentally strong you are, I think as a person, an athlete or anything, it’s inevitable to get some bad thoughts in your head so I had to deal with that too.
“This thing is real. If we take the right precautions and everybody is safe, things will get better quicker.
“But it’s a strange time so you have to work not only on your physical but on your mental aspect as well.”