After a long day at the Brisbane International presented by Suncorp, there are few things Grigor Dimitrov enjoys more than blasting some of his favourite music on the ride home.
For the Bulgarian, and the Brisbane courtesy car drivers, that’s meant plenty of American soloist Whitney Houston.
“Oh, my God. I didn’t know that thing was going to spread around that fast,” Dimitrov told ATPWorldTour.com when asked about his drive-home selection. “There’s just a couple of songs that I really like.”
Dimitrov said the tournament-provided drivers have been so nice to him on the rides back to his hotel that they’ve let him control the car stereo. “I appreciate moments like that. After a long, heavy day, you just want to like come in the car and just listen to what you really want to listen to, and it happened to be Whitney Houston,” he said.
The Monte-Carlo resident is rarely without music during the day, especially when he’s in the car. “Every time I step in my car the music starts right away. That’s the one thing that is super important for me in the car,” he said.
He also wakes up to music and falls asleep to it. “I listen pretty much 24-7,” Dimitrov said. “It’s just a part of me that I don’t think I can live without.”
The seventh seed, who faces Dominic Thiem in the Brisbane quarter-finals on Friday, is picking up where he left off last season. In July, Dimitrov was ranked No. 40 in the Emirates ATP Rankings but ended the year at No. 17 following an honest conversation with new coach Dani Vallverdu.
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“I was just not playing good tennis. I think I was doing a lot of wrong things on- and off-the-court, so I think that cost me a lot of matches, a lot of tournaments, so to speak. But at the same time, I was never discouraged. I’m always open to trying something new. I’m not afraid of the work,” Dimitrov said. “As soon as I got Dani on board, things were starting to happen for us a little bit. We kind of sat down, and we were showing our true colours. And I think we came to a conclusion about what’s important is what’s ahead of us and the goals that we had. And I think so far everything has been going quite well for us.”
Dimitrov finished 2016 by reaching the China Open final in Beijing and the semi-finals at the If Stockholm Open. To return to the Top 10 in 2017, Dimitrov said, he’ll need to improve his consistency. The right-hander reached a career-high of No. 8 in August 2014.
“Consistency throughout the year. Playing good at the big matches, winning big matches… I think is pretty much the key,” he said. “Of course, you need to be healthy and everything else but I think if you’re just consistent, you focus on your own stuff, you have the right team around, with the right attitude, then everything is achievable.”
