MELBOURNE: Grigor Dimitrov has criticised interest in his relationship with Maria Sharapova as an invasion of privacy and said the topic should be off-limits.
The 21-year-old suffered a vastly different fate to the Russian starlet who won in straight sets over Olga Puchkova yesterday.
Dimitrov lost 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 to veteran Frenchman Julien Benneteau.
Hype followed Dimitrov to his outside court, partly because word had spread that he was Sharapova’s new flame, and partly because he has uncanny similarities in technique and flair to 17-time major-winner Roger Federer.
“I don’t think it’s a distraction,” Dimitrov said of interest in his personal life. “I just believe I am here to be on the court. I am not here to speak about my private life.
“People love gossip. Who doesn’t? But I believe it’s a privacy invasion. I don’t think that’s right. It’s not because we’re different, but because it’s not right to athletes in general. It should be forbidden to even be asked but it is what it is, right?” he said yesterday. AFP
