The last time we saw in action Grigor Dimitrov It was in the Queen’s tournament, before losing to Sebastian Korda in the round of 16. The Bulgarian made his debut on grass this season to continue his good form, but he had no luck against an opponent who has shown great level this year on this surface. And along those lines, Dimitrov had very good results a few years ago, when he lifted the title there in 2014, the year in which he reached the semis in Wimbledon. At that time, the Bulgarian became a player with great projection to whom he was quickly compared to Roger Federer for his one-handed backhand among other things.
“At first I thought it was funny and then… I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t like it because it didn’t make sense. We are very different and we have some similarities, but we are not really the same people and I think it was unnecessary. It was probably one of the worst things I had to deal with in my career. I never liked it and it never brought me anything good. “Of course I’m flattered, but I always wanted to be my own person,” Dimitrov confessed to The New York Times. That is behind him and now the Bulgarian is completely focused on continuing his good harmony on the slopes in 2024, something that he started at the end of last year.
And what has been the reason for this resurgence in your career in which you have won your first title since 2017? A new team, a change of mentality, the full use of his physique and experience. These are the keys that Dimitrov has put together to achieve a spectacular start to the season in which he reached the final of Miami among other results. There he fell before a great Jannik Sinnerbut scoring that “comfortable” victory in the quarterfinals against Carlos Alcaraz It gave him a lot of confidence in his tennis: “I played an incredible match, that’s what happens when everything you touch turns into gold. They are very rare, but when they come, you have to take advantage of them and that was one of those matches. I know that when I play tennis like that it is extremely difficult to beat me. There was one which is why I reached the final of that tournament”.
However, Dimitrov has experienced many defeats, some that hurt more than others, like the one against Rafael Nadal in the semifinals of the 2017 Australian Open: “It took me seven or eight months to get over the match with Rafa. I often felt that there were invisible powers bending him. I was up 4-2 in the fifth set and I played incredibly well. There was no way I could lose the game and I still lost it.” At that moment, it affected the Bulgarian a lot, but he relied on mental strength to overcome it and move on. “You try to draw on your own experiences and ask yourself questions. I have always believed that you have to talk to someone, whether they are professionals, family or friends. I think it is a vital thing that we must do and that must come from within ourselves. Talking means nothing unless you take the first step.”he confessed.
A different player
Grigor returned to the top 10 this year and acknowledged feeling “u“A completely different person and player.”because his experience has helped him learn how to focus his career in this new stage of his life: “Many things have changed. There comes a point where I had to make some difficult decisions on and off the court. Sometimes with my coaching team, there were things I had to focus on outside of tennis. That’s life. For me, part of growing as a human being is having basic experiences, which I didn’t really have as a tennis player. “I always wanted to make sure I had those things and maybe that’s why they sometimes kept me away from the game, but I definitely don’t regret it.”
Thus, the Bulgarian believes that he has now found the balance he needed: “I think I’m handling things better and I also know that right now I’m much closer to the end than the beginning and that also gives you a very different perspective. Lately I’ve been able to win some games that maybe in the past I wouldn’t have done.” Your new goal to maintain your good start to the season? Wimbledon awaits you. “This period is always a little more complicated, with some difficult tournaments. It’s the time of year when you have to give everything you have”, he concluded.
2024-06-25 13:34:59
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