Dimitrov’s take on things
On beating a friend to reach his first Roland-Garros quarter-final: “I had a fairly short night [sleep] to be honest and I just came out and hit a few balls before the match. I didn’t want to spend a lot of energy so I just tried to prepare more mentally than anything else.
“It’s very hard to play against such a good friend. Hubi, I’ve known him for quite a few years. We practise a lot, we’ve shared quite a few moments together and I knew this was going to be a difficult match, but I knew also that I had to fight a lot… I always wanted to get to that second week.
“Roland-Garros was the only Slam that I felt like I could never get that extra step, but today, 15 years later, I made it so I’m very happy with that.”
On the intricacies of clay-court tennis: “I think especially when you play on the clay court here you need a lot of finesse, I mean reading the court a little bit. I think clay court is always tricky. You never know what conditions you’re going to get, but I like my chances. I like when I can use my body a lot, when I can chase balls all around the court, I’m able to use my slice, my variety.
“At the same time, when the ball is there to be hit I try to make the most out of it and also against Hubi, we both like to do quite a bit of finesse. He has extremely good touch and amazing reach throughout the court so I truly enjoyed that match.”