After his victory in the third round of the Shanghai Rolex Mastersagainst Australian Alexei Popyrin, defeated with a score of 7-6(5) 6-2 in an hour and a half, Grigor Dimitrov was greeted outside the Qizhong Forest Sports City Arena in Shanghai, home of the Chinese ATP Masters 1000, by a crowd of fans who surrounded him to get a photo or an autograph.
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An unpleasant walk among the enthusiasm of the fans, which caused an unexpected setback for the Bulgarian champion, at the exit of the court.
Trying to walk among the Chinese supporters, the exuberance of some fans almost caused the fall of the Bulgarian tennis player, who seemed quite annoyed. Dimitrov even looked for the culprit, pointing at him with his finger and approaching threateningly to face him head on.
The intervention of the security personnel prevented the situation from heating up further and Dimitrov was taken away.
Grigor, coming off another positive season after many years in the shade, conditioned by injuries and lack of continuity, is still in the running for a place at the ATP Finals in Turin and the Chinese ATP Master 1000 represents one of the last chances to earn points useful for getting the pass for the tournament at the end of the year.
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Below you can see the videos shared on X by @MeanMint360365 and @Olly_Tennis_ :
On the eve of the challenge with Popyrin, the Bulgarian had spoken about his future, at the rpess conference, revealing:
"Now I'm at an age where the victory doesn't matter to me but how the match went and how I managed it, this is the true art of our sport. Everything that happens now is positive for me, over the years I've started to appreciate everything we have, sometimes I think that I've been on the circuit for 16 years and it's positive. You see that time passes and so I try not to think about it but only think about the present, let's be honest now I'm more towards the end than the beginning of my career and I'm aware of it. Everything that happens on the court is positive for me and I don't look at numbers or particular results. A large part of my career resembles how I behaved off the court. Sometimes you want to make changes but in the end these affect everything and so it's a give and take until the end. I think I still have a lot of tennis ahead of me, I put myself in the condition to enjoy every moment in which I play and I don't think about the result."
