NEW YORK — Two months after barely being able to walk while ill with COVID-19, Grigor Dimitrov played a professional tennis match at the Western & Southern Open on Sunday and — while the result was not what was most important — he won.
“I said to myself, ‘I’ll give it a try.’ Now I’m here playing a match today,” said Dimitrov, a 29-year-old from Bulgaria who was a U.S. Open semifinalist last year and is ranked No. 19. “Honestly, I’m just purely thankful that I’m even able to just be here, to participate. Forget about the match — I’m not even talking about tennis right now.