11th-ranked Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria made an early exit at the Roland Garros 2014 tournament in Paris after losing his first round match to Croatian Ivo Karlovic 6-4, 7-5, 7-6. Karlovic, as expected, blasted 22 aces in the match.
“It was a very tough task for me today, especially if everything was going his way,” Dimitrov said. “I just couldn’t find the rhythm, and I couldn’t [convert] any of the little opportunities that I had in the match. So it’s something to obviously learn from, but in a way was one of those days that you can’t control anything. It happens.”
Dimitrov and Karlovic had a fruitful claycourt season. Dimitrov won his first claycourt title in Bucharest and made it to his first Masters semifinal in Rome. Karlovic reached the final of Dusseldorf Open last weekend.
“Last week was definitely was a big push in my clay court season because I didn’t do really well on clay since I don’t even remember when,” Karlovic told Sports Illustrated online. “It was an excellent week and it rolled into here. Today was one of my best matches on the clay court.”
“Today he was all over the court,” Dimitrov said. “He was just hitting his shots, penetrating every volley, low slice, serving really good… Even though I tried a lot of things, it is what it is. At the end of the day I don’t want to get myself too down for that. It’s just a loss.”
