Former world No. 1 Agassi to accompany Dimitrov at Australian Open

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The former No. 1 and eight-time Grand Slam champion Andre Agassi will be traveling to the Australian Open to help Grigor Dimitrov, with the Bulgarian saying that Agassi "has been amazing" since joining his coaching team.

The 48-year-old Agassi, who won the Australian Open four times, has been a coaching consultant for Dimitrov since the Paris Masters. The stylistic Dimitrov had a terrific 2017, winning the ATP Tour Finals and reaching No. 3. But this season, he has dropped to No. 19 and did not win a single tournament.

He's aiming to change that with Agassi's help. “[Andre will be in] Melbourne for sure. We are not sure for Brisbane [which begins two weeks before],” Dimitrov told the Brisbane Courier-Mail.

“For now, he is not scheduled to come, but we still haven’t discussed it to that extent—it’s still a little chance. There are a couple of things which we are slowly trying to see what we want to do.’’

The 27-year-old went to Las Vegas to work with Agassi during the offseason, and will also be accompanied by him at some of the big events this season. Agassi, who began his coaching career by working with Novak Djokovic between the 2017 French Open and this season's Miami Open, has frequently said he does not want to spend a lot of weeks on the road.

But Dimitrov, who has a regular coach, Dani Vallverdu, says they have been concentrating on training together and have not fixed a tournament schedule.

“Andre has been amazing—a big supporter,’’ Dimitrov said. “We’ve started to get to know each other a little more and to spend back-to-back weeks together was very helpful. We haven’t decided on an exact number of weeks. We are a work in progress and trying to find what works best for him and us as a team. We respect each other’s time."

He adds he is working on his game for the long-term, rather than reacting to having had a poor season.

“It was a very strange year with a lot of ups and downs. I played well, and then lost matches,” Dimitrov said. “I am always focusing on what I can do better for years down the line.”

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