Tennis player Dimitrov talks about his recovery from COVID-19

"I'm not ready to compete at the highest level at the moment. The movements are improving, everything is going in the right direction, but it's not easy to recover," confesses the 29-year-old tennis player to the specialized media Tennis Majors.

The Bulgarian tennis player lost both matches he played this weekend in France in the Ultimate Tennis Showdown, one of them against Feliciano López.

"I'm far from my best level, for sure. I haven't played tennis in over a month. The virus has been tough. I stayed at home for about a month. It's difficult to come back now," added the tennis player, who admitted to losing about three kilos of weight.

Dimitrov also recalled the symptoms he had after contracting the virus at the criticized tournament organized in Belgrade by Novak Djokovic, world number one, and how bad he felt despite his good physical condition and youth.

"I couldn't breathe well. I was tired. I didn't have a sense of taste or smell anything. It wasn't fun. To be honest, I'm lucky to be on the court right now. I don't take every day for granted. I really appreciate being here," he valued.

Nevertheless, Dimitrov hopes that these matches have been good preparation for the possible return of official competitions in the coming weeks and recalled that his game is very physical and not being fully recovered affects him a lot.

"One day I feel really good and I can train for about four hours. But suddenly, I need to stop, take a nap or just rest. So I have to go through that process. Hopefully, I fully recover," he summarized.

Dimitrov highlighted the toughness of isolation for so many days and said that to cope with it, one had to work on not only the physical aspects but also the mental ones.

"I was alone for 20 days, almost 24 hours. You can do the calculations, I spent about 5,000 hours alone. Many things go through your mind. No matter how mentally strong you are, as a person, athlete, or anything else. It's inevitable to have some negative thoughts in your head. I also had to deal with that," he stated.