{"id":258517,"date":"2025-10-29T10:44:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T10:44:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/258517\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T10:44:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T10:44:14","slug":"jim-courier-is-still-waiting-to-see-grigor-dimitrov-do-one-thing-after-returning-from-injury-with-a-win-in-paris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/258517\/","title":{"rendered":"Jim Courier is still waiting to see Grigor Dimitrov do one thing after returning from injury with a win in Paris"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\/ Follow us on Google Discover <\/a> <\/p>\n

Grigor Dimitrov made a triumphant return to ATP Tour action at the Paris Masters.<\/p>\n

The Bulgarian star hadn\u2019t played a match since Wimbledon, where Dimitrov injured his pectoral muscle<\/a> against Jannik Sinner in the fourth round.<\/p>\n

Making his return in Paris, Dimitrov took on the big-serving Frenchman, Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"GiovanniPhoto by Jean Catuffe\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Picking up the win in straight sets, 7-6, 6-1, Dimitrov<\/a> secured his place in round two, where he will take on either Jaume Munar or Daniil Medvedev.<\/p>\n

Reacting to Dimitrov\u2019s performance, tennis legend Jim Courier<\/a> revealed what he is still waiting to see from the 34-year-old.<\/p>\n

Jim Courier is waiting to see Grigor Dimitrov hit the shot that he injured himself on<\/p>\n

The former world number one is waiting to see Dimitrov truly push the limits upon his return from injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing that I would watch for, the serve is not where he injured it, he actually injured it on a backhand volley,\u201d said Courier.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat will be the one, when he gets pushed to hit that shot again, does he trust it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like watching [Alexander] Zverev<\/a> trust moving to his right a few years ago after he had that ankle injury at Roland Garros.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to be able to replicate that move, \u2018Ok, my body held\u2019, now I\u2019m back, and I\u2019m ok.\u201d<\/p>\n

Courier\u2019s fellow American Sam Querrey<\/a> agreed, as he said Dimitrov needs to overcome the \u2018mental hurdle\u2019 associated with returning from injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always tough. Look, you\u2019re going to test it in practice, right?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"GrigorPhoto by Franco Arland\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s always a little different when you get on the court for a match, those first few games you feel into it, whatever the injury is, you gain a little bit of belief, in his case, with every serve.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor him, it\u2019s a mental hurdle more than anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Querrey was impressed with the level Dimitrov showed against Mpetshi Perricard, giving him an \u2018A\u2019 rating for his performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI give him an A. A lot of guys wouldn\u2019t have played here, right? It\u2019s the last tournament of the year, it just goes to show how much he loves tennis,\u201d said Querrey.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe could have not played this, taken a couple of more months, and started in Australia, but he said, Hey, I love this game, I want to play that last event of the year and it was great to see him back on court.\u201d<\/p>\n

Courier believes Dimitrov is treating the Paris Masters<\/a> as a \u2018pre-season\u2019 training tournament, as he looked ahead to his second round match.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs soon as you\u2019re healthy, if you\u2019re Dimitrov, you want to get back out there and finish the year on an upswing, instead of mothballing everything and getting ready for next year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is basically pre-season training for him in his mind, I\u2019m sure.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI like it, we will see how far he goes from here, he\u2019s got a tricky draw, either [Daniil] Medvedev<\/a> or [Jaume] Munar next, so it doesn\u2019t get easier, but the fact that he\u2019s here, it\u2019s already a huge win.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Courier mentioned, he\u2019s been given a tricky draw in Paris, but how has he performed against Medvedev and Munar in the past?<\/p>\n

Grigor Dimitrov\u2019s head-to-head record vs Daniil Medvedev and Jaume Munar<\/p>\n

Dimitrov has yet to play Spain\u2019s Munar, but has met Medvedev 11 times in total.<\/p>\n

MatchWinnerLoserScore2024 Wimbledon \u2013 4RDaniil MedvedevGrigor Dimitrov5-3 (RET)2024 Indian Wells \u2013 4RDaniil MedvedevGrigor Dimitrov6-4, 6-42023 Paris Masters \u2013 2RGrigor DimitrovDaniil Medvedev6-3, 6-7, 7-62023 Vienna Open \u2013 2RDaniil MedvedevGrigor Dimitrov3-6, 6-2, 6-42023 Rotterdam Open \u2013 SFDaniil MedvedevGrigor Dimitrov6-1, 6-22023 Vienna Open \u2013 SFDaniil MedvedevGrigor Dimitrov6-4, 6-22021 Indian Wells \u2013 4RGrigor DimitrovDaniil Medvedev4-6, 6-4, 6-32021 Cincinnati Open \u2013 3RDaniil MedvedevGrigor Dimitrov6-3, 6-32019 US Open \u2013 SFDaniil MedvedevGrigor Dimitrov7-6, 6-4, 6-32017 Washington Open \u2013 3RDaniil MedvedevGrigor Dimitrov6-4, 6-22017 Queen\u2019s \u2013 QFGrigor DimitrovDaniil Medvedev6-3, 3-6, 6-3Daniil Medvedev and Grigor Dimitrov\u2019s head-to-head record<\/p>\n

Dimitrov trails Medvedev in the head-to-head 8-3, but beat him in their only previous meeting at the Paris Masters two years ago.<\/p>\n

\"DaniilPhoto by Ibrahim Ezzat\/NurPhoto via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The Bulgarian would no doubt love a repeat result should they face off in Paris again this year.<\/p>\n

Medvedev will first have to get past Munar, whom he plays in the first round on Tuesday, October 28.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Follow us on Google Discover Grigor Dimitrov made a triumphant return to ATP Tour action at the Paris…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":258518,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[430,35764,7002,127103,99,428],"class_list":["post-258517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-atp","tag-grigor-dimitrov","tag-jim-courier","tag-paris-masters","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}