Week One of Wimbledon Sees a Lot of Tennis Favorites Lose—But Grigor Dimitrov is Still Around

By Alix Ramsay

In the tattered remnants of the men’s draw, it is all but impossible to find any challengers to the obvious favorites (a certain Mr Alcaraz and his taller rival Mr Sinner).

Of those who have already left the building, many are either mentally burned out – Sascha Zverev, Alexei Popyrin – or physically done in: Casper Ruud, Lorenzo Musetti. They call it burnout. Actually, Zverev doesn’t know what to call it. He just feels “lonely”.

“I’ve never felt this empty before,” he said quietly after his first round loss earlier this week. “Just lacking joy, just lacking joy in everything that I do. It’s not necessarily about tennis. Just lacking joy outside of tennis, as well.”

It is true that the tour is relentless but that is a double-edged sword. No, there is no time to rest and recover but, then again, a crushing defeat can be erased from the memory banks the very next week in a new town and a new tournament. And, let’s face it, the pay cheques can ease the pain. A quarter-final finish means a quarter-final loss but it also means a quarter-finalist’s earnings.

Among these battered and bruised athletes stands Grigor Dimitrov. He is 34 now and has been schlepping around the tour for half a lifetime. He has had his fair share of injury issues (he is presently making his way back from a thigh and hip issue that forced him to retire in the first round at Roland-Garros) but he is still here.

He may not have fulfilled his early promise and won a grand slam but he is still here. He may take the occasional pasting from a young, stronger man but he is still here.

Dimitrov is not like these younger lads.

“I don’t really believe in burnout, the actual word, because it’s you,” he said. “I think being burned out means you don’t listen to yourself. And it’s a way of your body telling you, hey, you need to shut down for a while. And we go through that more than we could actually recognise.

“We’re in a hurry, but what are we actually in a hurry for at times? In our sport, one of the best things you always have is next week. Is it difficult? Yes. Is it throughout the whole year? Yes. But sometimes you need to do quite a few steps back to go way more steps forward.”

He is a wise old bird, is Dimitrov. When he was younger and trying to shake off the “Baby Fed” moniker (he just wanted to be the “Original Grigor”) he had the world at his feet. He was supremely talented, stunningly good looking and he was winning. A Wimbledon semi-finalist at the age of 23, he was the world No.3 three years later. But for all his gifts, three grand slam semi-finals was the best he could do.

Does he regret any of it? Not a chance. He has lived his life, his way. And even if he could go back and tell his younger self what he knows now, he doesn’t believe it would make a blind bit of difference.

“The way I’ve lived my life is very, I think, different,” he said with a knowing smile. “I, for one, haven’t really followed, I think, within the lines for the bigger chunk of my career. I don’t know if I should say I’m proud of it or not. I would have loved to know certain things and I would have not wanted to know big other chunk of that, so I feel like I’ve lived the way I wanted to live and I have no really like regrets.

“In terms of in terms of my game yes, I could have tried maybe certain things earlier in my career but again I don’t think that would have made a huge difference.

“When you get a little bit older, your challenge kind of becomes very different: it’s not the players anymore it’s not winning or losing. It’s your own battle. You need to know your whys: why you play tennis, why do you want to keep on going, why do you want to go through this type of things with your body. My whys, my challenges, are all mine now. It has nothing to do almost with the sport anymore because I love the sport itself.”

That love has taken him to the third round at Wimbledon and an appointment with Sebastian Ofner, the conqueror of Tommy Paul, on Saturday. If he can keep his recently ailing left leg bolted in place, he could reach the last 16 but if he doesn’t, he will pack his bags and move on to a fresh challenge somewhere else. And he will do it willingly and with a smile on his face.

Before he goes, the younger men might want to pick his brains. He has found a way to keep himself motivated and committed to the workload; they might want to know how it is done.

“You need to have your own authority, your own voice,” he advised. “Like, you don’t want to do it? Don’t do it. But that’s the rare part. My point is you need to own up to that as well. It’s not about just saying it or doing the opposite of what someone is telling you to do. You need to express those moments.

“And of course the coaches will disagree with you. Maybe your whole team will disagree with you. But then, ultimately, you’re the one that goes out there and performs. You’re the one that puts yourself out there on the line. You’re the one that pushes your body on a daily basis.

“So, if you’re not good with yourself above all – forget about the physical aspect – if you’re not good with yourself, how on earth are you going push on the court?”

For the moment, and unlike the younger man, Dimitrov is still here.