Grigor Dimitrov won't have good memories of the 2023 Barcelona Open as almost everything went wrong for him over the week.
It all started a few days ago, when the Bulgarian player had his 70,000€ watch stolen in Barcelona. It all happened very fast and no one was harmed, but it surely wasn't a pleasant experience for Dimitrov. After the incident, he took on Emilio Gomez from Ecuador in the second round of the 2023 Barcelona Open and advanced through to round three.
There, Dimitrov was set to take on the eighth-seeded Alex de Minaur from Australia as the two wanted to dissect their 'rivalry' on the ATP Tour. Before, they met four times with each player winning two matches and so one could march ahead in the head-to-head on Thursday.
But unfortunately for Dimitrov and fans, who awaited them at the Pista Andres Gimeno in Real Club de Tennis Barcelona, this match would never happen as the eleventh-seeded Bulgarian was forced to pull out of the event due to an illness.
Dimitrov didn't provide any specific update, but since it's only an illness, he will surely look to join the field again at the upcoming 2023 Madrid Open. Last year, he won 10 of 15 matches that he played on clay, and that will be surely something he will want to follow also in 2023 as last year's season was the best for him on the red dirt since 2015 when he had the same record.
On the other hand, De Minaur will now look ahead of him in the draw. In the quarterfinals, the Australian will await the winner of the match between the second-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas and the 14th-seeded Denis Shapovalov who are set to clash at the Pista Rafa Nadal.
The Australian will want to use the rest to his advantage as he only had to play one match at the prestigious ATP 500 event in Barcelona to get into the quarterfinals and that was a quick 6-0, 6-1 win over Alexander Shevchenko.
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