World number one Novak Djokovic has conceded his preparation for the Madrid Masters wasn’t good after his shock loss to Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov.
The Serbian went down 7-6 (8-6), 6-7 (8-10), 6-3 to the little-known 21-year-old Bulgarian in the second round of the Madrid event on Tuesday.
“For this tournament, I didn’t prepare myself so good, but I’m not trying to find any excuses,” Djokovic said.
The match was the longest three-setter of 2013, lasting three hours and five minutes. The emerging Dimitrov was delighted with the triumph.
“Today was one of these days that I felt good on court. I felt I had enough hours of practice in the weeks before,” Dimitrov said.
“I felt that I could actually hang with Novak the whole match. That’s the whole purpose of getting ready for big events and eventually for big matches.”
He added: “I thought the tie-break was pretty intense obviously. He stepped up on a few shots. He’s Novak.
“In the end of the day, you can expect anything from him. He played a great tie-break, so I couldn’t do much… Of course I tried to stay really positive. I believed in myself. I think that was the big sparkle coming into the third set.”