Grigor Dimitrov focused on having fun against Jannik Sinner at Wimbledon after season of injury blows

The National

7 days ago

For as long as he can remember, Grigor Dimitrov has been staying with the same family at their house in Wimbledon each year when he's competing in the Championships.
He hangs out with their kids, runs with their dog, and enjoys barbecuing and playing football in their garden.
'I feel like I'm in a retreat. I just come down to play some tennis and as soon as I'm done, I even eat at the house, I don't even eat here. I shower and I'm out,' says Dimitrov.
'I love those surroundings. I've always craved it, I always wanted it and now when you have it, that itself already gives you such a … you feel so rejuvenated the next day.'
Dimitrov was speaking to a small group of reporters at the All England Club after he secured a place in the Wimbledon third round on Thursday.
His girlfriend, Mexican actress and singer Eiza Gonzalez, surprised him that morning by flying into London to support him during his match.
'It's all so nice that I try to take these vibes and grab them with both hands and I run completely with them around my back,' he added.
Two days later, Dimitrov advanced to the fourth round at Wimbledon for the third consecutive year by defeating Sebastian Ofner, and in the process, recorded the 100th Grand Slam win of his career.
In a season dogged by injuries which forced him to retire mid-match at both the Australian Open and Roland Garros, Dimitrov is grateful to be healthy and pain-free heading into a blockbuster last-16 showdown with world No 1 Jannik Sinner.
'I'm here to play. I feel great. After three matches to be where I'm at physically, really gives me a good, positive and upbeat way to get out there and play my game,' said the 34-year-old Bulgarian.
'That's all I want, is to put myself in those type of positions, to get out there and play against these guys right now. This is in a way the most important thing for me.'
Sinner, together with Carlos Alcaraz, have dominated men's tennis for the past couple of years, and have combined to win the last six consecutive Grand Slams.
The top-seeded Sinner has not dropped a set en route to the Wimbledon fourth round – losing just 17 games in total through three matches – and takes a 4-1 head-to-head record lead into his clash with Dimitrov.
'He's been the best player in the world, especially over the course of the last year and a half, two. You can appreciate his consistency, I would say, the most on the court and being able to execute without a single doubt in his game,' said Dimitrov of the 23-year-old Italian.
'This particular match for me, with all due respect, I don't rate it as 'wow' match. It's just another day for me to perform. It's been a difficult six, seven months for me. I put a lot of work. I've struggled a lot.
'That match has meaning for myself more so than anything else. But do I want to put any bigger occasion to it? No. I think I'm very content with what it is.
'The rest is having fun. This is important. We're in the second week of Wimbledon. Let's have fun.'
Sinner and Alcaraz produced one of the greatest major finals of all time when they squared off at the French Open last month. The duo have separated themselves from the rest of the field and bring a degree of power and athleticism that has simply stunned the world of sport.
Dimitrov, like the rest of us, is in awe of the world's top two, but also made an interesting observation.
'If you think about it, the two guys, they're the best two players right now. They've clearly won the Slams and everything,' he said.
'Also, for me, it's very interesting to look at it from a very different perspective in a sense that you have two 22-year-olds [sic: 23 and 22] that don't know what failure is yet. They've never lost. The experience of life matters a lot.
'They haven't seen the bad side of life in a way. Nothing against them, they're the two greatest players at the moment by far, by far.
'But if you look at it also a little bit from psychological points of view and the environment that they're in and everything, with all due respect, they were playing the final [in Paris] and neither one of them had ever lost the final of a Slam.
'It's kind of funny when you hear it. I was laughing. Actually, I was like, 'yep, I get that'. Then why wouldn't you be fearless?
'But then with age, we all know that fear comes very differently. It creeps in. It's not even about being fearless. It's about exploring your opportunities. And they just go for those opportunities. But I think with time, let's see how everything else would unfold.'
At this stage in his career, Dimitrov has quite the philosophical approach to both tennis and life.
When he lost a match 6-0, 6-0 to Alex de Minaur in Monte Carlo earlier this season, he later said he was 'grateful' for it.
'Early on in the year, I quit so many times and I hate quitting,' Dimitrov told reporters in Madrid of that defeat.
'Clearly due to always body problems and whatever it is, I always had to fight through it and kind of pulled out because I knew that I just couldn't play and it was one of these moments where I was like, you know what, I'll just take it on the chin and move on.
'That's just how it is and now that I had some time away from it, in some weird way, I feel proud of it that I stayed out there.
'This match helped me for some other stuff, I think, and in some messed up way, I'm kind of grateful for it.'
In a sport like tennis, having a poker face is often encouraged, with coaches always urging their players not to show anger, weakness, or frustration, both on the court or off it, because that can be exploited by an opponent.
Over the years, Dimitrov learnt that hiding how he felt was not the way to go for him and he believes his self-awareness and being in touch with his emotions are some of his greatest assets – albeit can be seen as a liability in the eyes of others.
'That's probably one of my biggest strengths and my biggest weakness, is always being so aligned with myself, with my feelings,' Dimitrov said a few months ago.
'And it's always been very hard to hide when I had to hide. But also at the same time, I realised that I don't want to hide. There's nothing for me to hide.
'We speak about a lot of mental capacities and what we can do and how we can do things and the mental toughness and all that. But we all struggle in one way or the other mentally.
'If we all think about it, we just mask it very good. And along the way doing that, we sabotage things for anything you can possibly think of, whether it's business, love life, sports, friendship, family, your own self.'
In Japanese philosophy, it is believed that a person has three faces: the one we show to the world, the one we show to friends and family and the one we show to no one.
Dimitrov spent years trying to understand his three faces before he realised 'I don't have three faces'.
'And all that stuff, they kind of came through and it helped me to … basically experience helps, experience helps, family helps, friends helps.
'I think reaching out to professionals helps, reaching out to another fellow athlete helps, psychologist helps. I think all that helps. You just need to find your own way to help yourself. Because before you do all these things that I just mentioned, the first step is always from you.'