Dimitrov Withstands Low Blow in Montreal

Written by Richard Pagliaro | @TennisNow | Thursday, August 8, 2024
Image credit: Screen Shot

A painful shot below the belt was not delayed Grigor Dimitrov located in Montreal.

Watch Dimitrov suffer a low ball to the thighs, a men’s player’s worst nightmare, in the early stages of his Montreal vs. Rinky Hijikata.

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Dimitrov tried to deflect Hijikata’s backhand, but missed the ball and was hit in a critical spot.

Hear the fans in the crowd let out sympathetic groans at Dimitrov’s pain as the Bulgarian bites his shirt and slowly goes to the back wall to try to remove it before falling to his knees in pain.

Everyone heard that 🫣@GrigorDimitrov with bad luck to #OBN24… pic.twitter.com/VV35L8jJTS

— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) August 8, 2024

In an amazing display of resilience, Dimitrov not only kept playing after the ball was shot, he actually won nine games in a row to seal a 6-1, 6-0 victory in the Aussie qualifier.

Afterward, Dimitrov summed up the experience as truly painful.

“It hurts. It hurts. It hurts,” Dimitrov said Prakash Amritraj’s tennis channel after that. “I was trying to stop the ball and there was a gust of wind so at the last second it moved and I moved.

“For three or four games it wasn’t fun.”

Seventh-seeded Dimitrov will face either 2023 US Open semifinalist Ben Shelton or Aussie Alexei Popyrin place in the quarterfinals.