Grigor Dimitrov Wins ATP Finals Title Beating David Goffin
(November 19, 2017) Grigor Dimitrov completed a career week to perfection on Sunday, beating David Goffin 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 in two-an-a-half hours to win his biggest title to date, the ATP World Tour Year-End title in his first appearance. Dimitrov went 5-0 for the event, collecting 1500 ranking points to raise his year-end ranking to No. 3, jumping over Alexander Zverev.
“It’s been an amazing week for me,” said the winner from Bulgaria in his acceptance speech on court at London’s O2 Arena.
“It’s such an honor to be here and this week has been one of the best weeks I’ve ever had.”
“For me, the way that the year has been, I mean, I felt I deserved to be here, yes, but I didn’t want to imagine that far ahead that, Yeah, I’m going to be on the final, win the whole thing,” Dimitrov said to media.
“It was also just the end of the year, the last match. Knowing I don’t have to go to practice tomorrow will be great feeling when I wake up in the morning, I just can do whatever I want (laughter). As a tennis player, you don’t have that freedom that much. If you want to be up at the top, there’s no shortcuts.
“Yeah, I’m fully dedicated. This year I think I’ve done a lot of work on that. I sacrificed days that I should have probably had off, maybe go to a little vacation here and there. Now it pays off.”
“I don’t want to get too hyped up because I’ve done well, now I’m No. 3 in the world,” Dimitrov said to media. No, this makes me even more I think locked in, more excited about my work, and for what’s to come.
“As I said, right now it’s a great platform for me to build on for next year. It’s going to be amazing in the off-season. I know what I have to do in order to do good.”
“I was a little bit tired in the third,” Goffin said. “But, yeah, it’s the only game maybe I didn’t serve well. I didn’t put a lot of first serves in that game. He took this one. He took the advantage because, yeah, I served a lot of second serves. He was really solid. He started to put more balls in the court.
“Since the end of the first set, I was serving really well. In that game, he took his chance. After that, yeah, I didn’t have the opportunity to come back because, yeah, I had some opportunity at the first game of the third set. Yeah, after that he played well. He played solid.
“It was a good match.”
Asked if the Belgian had grown this week as a tennis player, the Belgian Goffin who beat both Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer during the tournament said: “I think after this week I’m a better player mentally. Yeah, obviously mentally, but also, yeah, physically. It was tough.
“I proved to myself that I can do it. I was at the right place because, you know, sometimes you are for the first time in the top 8, you don’t know how it’s going to go, if you’re going to play a good level.
“I proved to myself that, yeah, I’m in the right place, and I deserve to be here in this tournament. Then match after match, I took more confidence until the final. So I’m proud of what I’ve achieved, even if I’m disappointed about the final.
“I gave everything. I have no regrets after the final. Anyway, it was a great week. So, yeah, I think I’m a better player.”
“I think after this week I’m a better player mentally,” he continued. “Yeah, obviously mentally, but also, yeah, physically. It was tough.
“I proved to myself that I can do it. I was at the right place because, you know, sometimes you are for the first time in the top 8, you don’t know how it’s going to go, if you’re going to play a good level.
“I proved to myself that, yeah, I’m in the right place, and I deserve to be here in this tournament. Then match after match, I took more confidence until the final. So I’m proud of what I’ve achieved, even if I’m disappointed about the final.
“I gave everything. I have no regrets after the final. Anyway, it was a great week. So, yeah, I think I’m a better player.”
Goffin’s season is not over yet, he’ll represent his country Belgium on the Davis Cup team next week in Lille, France.
The 26-year-old Dmitrov became the first debutante to win the ATP Finals since 1998. This was his seventh career ATP title, fourth of the year, and by far the most important.
“I’m still trying to think about what I just did,” Dimitrov admitted. “I think now definitely we going to sit down with the team and reassess the whole year, see what we’ve done good, what we can improve. Of course, one of my main goals is to win a tournament, you know, a Grand Slam tournament. This has always been, again, a dream of mine.
“Now slowly I think this thing is getting there. I think I’ve had good results in the past, but now, as I said, I need to be even more consistent on those kind of events, and in the same time raise up my level on occasions like this.
“Obviously, this is a great, unbelievable achievement for me, yes. But, yeah, I just still have a lot to give. I want to perform better and better.”