Bulgarian star praises World No. 114 Karatsev for his Melbourne run
Grigor Dimitrov confirmed that he suffered a back spasm on Monday, but it never crossed his mind to quit against Aslan Karatsev in their Australian Open quarter-final.
“I just got a back spasm yesterday at some point,” said Dimitrov on Tuesday. “We couldn't fix it in time. [The pain started to happen again], early in the match [today]. It kept on progressing, and it was unstoppable… It started yesterday out of the blue.
“I felt I was on a good path. We've done great work. I was very positive and upbeat for whatever, whoever I had to play… Today, I couldn't put my socks on before the match, so I knew it was going to be a tough moment for me. I tried, but it was not good enough. But he absolutely deserved to win.”