I arrived in Washington a few days earlier than expected so I decided to take a walk to the White House LinconIn Memorial and the Washington Monument. 

On Monday, when the first match was scheduled, I was ready to play around 3:00PM, but the match was postponed until midnight because of the rain. I'm glad I was able to take a rematch against Mirza Basic after the painful defeat at the Sofia Open finals, at the beginning of the year. I knew exactly what mistakes I made in that match so I didn’t repeat them again this time. I just had to change my tactics. The match ended around 2:00AM, but taking into account the time I needed for recovery, I got to go to sleep at 3:30AM. It was my first experience with a match played at such a late hour so I'm glad I had a one day break and I was able to recover for the second round.

In the 2nd round I made a rematch, this time with Jérémy Chardy. Chardy, who came after a very good season on grass and with great self-confidence. I knew it will be a difficult match where I had to take advantage of any chance and give it all to win. And that's exactly what I did.

And what a nice match I had the next evening, against Andy Murray. The match started at 00:01AM and ended at 3:05AM. Three hours of great play from both of us, with many unforgettable points. I have to admit that I am sorry I did not make a hat trick in Washington. It was a very long evening, I finished the whole program at 5:30AM. In the last match, against Murray, I went out there thinking that I just want to make a nice match and that's why I approached a wrong tactic. I really believed in my victory, I wanted to be aggressive and to get to the net more often, to have shorter points, etc. I had 0-30 on his service for about 6 times and I think those were the time when I started to hesitate a little and did not feel the pressure anymore.

But in the end, the Washington tour was a nice one, with great achievements for me and I am sure everything will be better and better.