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The Bulgarian starts working with Tsonga's former coach

Dimitrov had a weaker part of the season and he will try to put an end to it with the start of the indoor season and finish the season with style. His first opponent here will be Copil who is a tough qualifier with a good serve

Dimitrov is one of the players who had a lot of media attention this season but it mostly had nothing to do with his tennis. The news about his relationship with Sharapova came out of the blue and right away it brought speculation on how that will affect the career of the extremely talented Bulgarian. At the start of the season it seemed that it could bring some positive momentum for him but at the end of the season it just raises more and more doubts.

The conclusion at the end is that Dimitrov is in a crisis as he keeps getting poor results and the consequence was a lot of changes for the Bulgarian. First, he decided to move to Los Angeles and end his cooperation with "Good of great" tennis academy situated in Stockholm. The main reason must have been his desire to spend more time with his girlfriend. After that news, the Bulgarian shortly gave us another:

- Roger Rasheed and I decided to start working together and he will be helping me until the end of the season and also at the beginning of the following season. He is a great coach who brought Tsonga into the Top 10 which is my goal as well.

The Bulgarian has some turbulent times coming in the future but for now he has a few more indoor ATP tournaments to play. He cannot be satisfied with his Asian tour performance since he got knocked out in the first round in both tournaments he played, so he will try to fix it in Stockholm.

- It is always nice to come back here and I have good memories of this town. It's the end of the season and everyone is a bit tired so I think it is a good time to work on mental strength and finish off the season in style - said the Bulgarian prior to the tournament start.

The first round gave him Copil, a Romanian who without a doubt prefers these play conditions. Copil has a solid season behind him and in his case that means he had good challenger tournament results (22-13) and one ATP tournament win.

As expected, the Romanian had most success in indoor conditions and at the start of the season he had a challenger title. However, he hasn't had great results in the second indoor period. On three such tournaments he had only two wins and managed to leave a better impression only after going through qualifications here.

He had three convincing wins here but it should be mentioned that he had weaker opponents. His last opponent, Cox, is the only player among the 300 of the best and the conclusion is that Copil just knew how to take advantage of the draw. The Romanian dominated with his serve in all his matches and so far he let only one service game. He also has some good memories from this tournament since last year he had a first round win here and a year after that he reached the main draw through qualifications.

Dimitrov is not in his best shape so it will be interesting to see how he performs in these last indoor challenges. Even though he is facing a qualifier, he is still a tough opponent with an excellent serve so a match with few breaks of serve is expected.

Copil and indoors go hand in hand, and the Romanian can undoubtedly give his best in these conditions. He is certainly not on Dimitrov's level, but a great serve guarantees many free points in these conditions. On the other hand , Dimitrov is struggling lately, and although he said he will be fully committed here, he has yet to gain my trust. That is why this looks like a close match to me. Dimitrov has the experience and quality level at his side, while adaptability (a single lost serve in three qualifying matches) is Copil's strength.