Grigor Dimitrov and Stefanos Tsitsipas gave a press conference before the exhibition match between them today. The match from the tennis event Postbank Tennis Gala between the two former number 3 in the world rankings will take place at "Arena Sofia".
Before starting the conversation with the media, the two wrote on large tennis balls the things that inspire them - Grisho wrote "family", and Tsitsipas wrote "passion and ambition".
"Thank you Stefanos for coming and supporting my foundation with this match, this has always been my passion and has always driven me forward. The support of the fans and family is of great importance to me, it makes me want to help Bulgarian children even more", said Grigor.
"I thank Grigor for the invitation, I have always admired him because he has been on the tour longer than me. We have been friends for a long time and we share a fate - in our neighboring countries tennis is not number 1 among sports and this has also brought us together over the years", said Tsitsipas.
"Every year I want to play such matches, they help my cause and help Bulgaria. Stefanos and I are from neighboring countries and we have a lot in common. It was not difficult to get along, but otherwise the organization is very serious and it takes a long time to get together in terms of schedules. The stars aligned and we managed to make it happen", said Grigor.
"I will play at the "Challenger" in Dublin, I want to play as much as possible on grass. It is not clear whether I will get a "wild card" at "Wimbledon", for me the most important thing is to stay positive and accumulate the necessary victories," added the Bulgarian.
"The big picture is important, I would like to make these matches a tradition. It doesn't have to be only with Balkan tennis players, but they certainly know how to do it. The important thing is to be close to the children and inspire them. I was very young when I broke into the tour, and then it was very important for me to spend time with other top players. I want to help the children feel this close contact with them, these matches are one of the ways," said Grisho.
"We are going step by step, I have a very good team in the foundation. It is not easy to create a foundation and have it be at a high level. I have always wanted to help children, they are the future. This morning I was working on a new project to introduce into our program. I also want more global projects. Many things are in the initial stages, but we will make them as simple as possible for the children, we hope to get them interested in food and sports from a young age. We need to educate them on how to take care of their health, and this also applies to their parents. If I can help with the lessons learned, it would be great," said Dimitrov.
"It is more important for me to prepare physically, but it is equally important to pay attention to psychological preparation. Injuries contribute to falling down the rankings and you have to accept that, some things you can't control," said Dimitrov, while Tsitsipas added that the ranking is just a number and shouldn't be paid so much attention to, because preparation and a healthy lifestyle are more important.
"I have never had normal conditions for tennis in Bulgaria and this also applies to Stefanos in his country. Unfortunately, we have never had and we still don't have infrastructure with normal courts and fitness. The pity is that we have a lot of traditions in this sport and we continue to have good players with the young generation that comes after me," said Grisho.