Dimitrov’s start to the year was promising, making the last eight in Brisbane, finals in Sydney, third round at the Australian Open where he took Roger Federer to four sets before surrendering, and semis in Delray Beach, where he lost to world No86 Rajeev Ram.

It’s been up and down since then for him and he can’t decide why things “aren’t clicking”.

“I think right now my serve is very off, I’m breaking a lot of strings on clay this year, today I broke six strings again, over the course of five sets, which is a lot considering we were changing balls quite often,” he explains.

“Just small things that aren’t working, a little piece there, a little piece here and you can’t really fight it. It is what it is, you accept it and you try to find solutions. Right now I’m just fighting to find a solution. I’m disappointed. I’m very disappointed, it’s my third French Open in a row that I’m losing in the first round, it’s not like I’m playing bad on clay or anything…”

A very disappointed Dimitrov (suffers third str8 RG R1 loss) talks about his current struggles: "I have to admit it's scary sometimes" #RG16 — Reem Abulleil (@ReemAbulleil) May 23, 2016

Dimitrov, who teamed up with Juan Martin del Potro’s ex-coach Franco Davin in September last year, can’t determine whether the problem is more mental or technical and says he’s relying on his team to sit down with him and draw up a plan of action.

“Those doubts start to come and once they come they make you very insecure on the court and then you have to change your game a little bit, whether stay back and hit some more shots… it gets you off your game plan a lot and that’s not good. As a player when you have a game plan and you have to change it, it’s really no fun. You find a way and sometimes it’s too late and sometimes it’s not working and for me right now it’s both,” he concedes.

“I do put the work in but there’s just hurdles non-stop that at least, I’ll be very appreciative of whomever from my team or anyone to sit me down and say ‘listen this can’t go like this anymore and we need to do something about it’. I’m very open to that kind of discussion.”

Some have questioned whether his romances with WTA star Maria Sharapova and more recently pop singer Nicole Scherzinger have been sources of distraction but Dimitrov insists the tennis court has always been his happy place irrespective of any off-court drama.

Asked whether he has considered seeing a sports psychologist, he says: “I don’t know. I don’t think I’m there yet. I don’t know about sports psychology or any of that. If for example someone from my team says ‘hey, maybe you should try that’, I’m always open to try things in general.

“But I don’t know, I think I’m not there, it’s just more mentally for me when I’m alone out there on the court than outside factors. Whatever you have in your life in your life you have it, but then after you come out on the court it should be your nice place, a place that you can feel good, smile and play the game.”

The real problem is that Dimitrov’s opponents can detect all those doubts he has in his game and Troicki said it played a factor in their match.

“Yes, I did (sense that he doesn’t have confidence in himself now). I knew that, after his loss in the Istanbul final, where he was serving for the match, and he didn’t play well especially this year on clay. I think he can play very well on clay but I knew his confidence isn’t very good right now,” said Troicki, who next faces his fellow Serb Dusan Lajovic in the second round.

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