“I’m falling in love with the process again”: Dimitrov enjoying every minute and dreaming big
Grigor Dimitrov is savouring every moment of his Wimbledon quarter-final run, the wild card saying the fortnight has reconnected him with what first drew him to tennis. “I still believe in myself. At the moment, we’re just going at it with full force, doing what needs to be done, regardless of the outcome, and we keep believing in the pattern, the plan.” A deep dive into Grigor Dimitrov’s journey.
Grigor Dimitrov, Wimbledon 2026 | © Ch. Caillaud / PsNewz
Grigor Dimitrov let himself say it, almost. Asked whether a 35-year-old wild card ranked 146th could win Wimbledon, the Bulgarian did not pretend to have misunderstood the question. “When you have a racquet in your hand, everything is possible,” he said. “It’s a great story, isn’t it? No, I get it, trust me. I live for those.” The question was whether he could emulate Goran Ivanišević in 2001 – still the only man to win a Grand Slam singles title as a wild card.
At the moment, he had just beaten Matteo Berrettini 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 5-7, 6-3 to reach the fourth round, on the same Centre Court where, a year ago, a torn pectoral forced him to retire against Jannik Sinner from two sets up. That he was standing here at all, talking about winning the tournament, was the story.
“I’m just proud that I’m able to handle myself the way I’m doing right now,” he said. “Even if I would have lost that match today, I still would have been proud, because I knew I have given everything.”
“I still believe in myself. I have played good tennis. I know I’ve had somehow a pretty crazy career to a certain extent with highs and lows and ups and downs, all that. I get it. I’m aware. I wouldn’t change a thing, man. At the moment, we’re just going at it with a full force of what needs to be done, regardless of the outcome, and we keep on believing in the path and the plan.”
You fought something for so long, and then it turns out maybe you’ve been fighting the wrong pain
The past twelve months were the leanest of his professional life. The Sinner injury ended a streak of 58 consecutive Grand Slam main draws, the fifth-longest in men’s history, when he withdrew from the 2025 US Open.
He fell in the first round of qualifying at Roland-Garros six weeks ago, his first Slam qualifying appearance in fourteen years. He played Challenger events for the first time since 2012. Somewhere in that year, he stopped and looked inward, and reached a conclusion he could only half explain.
“You fought something for so long, and then it turns out maybe you’ve been fighting the wrong pain,” Dimitrov said. “It’s difficult for me to, like, sum it up for you, but it’s just the way it is, and these are the moments that I really kind of have forgotten a little bit.” These words are from a man whose body kept deciding when he could stop. The Sinner retirement was the fifth Grand Slam in a row Dimitrov had failed to finish. A knee at the 2024 US Open, a hip in Australia, a thigh at Roland-Garros — one major after another ended not in defeat but in his body giving way, until every draw became a question of survival.
The last three matches reminded him who he is. The shift is recent enough that he dates it to this week. “The last three matches have really reminded me a different part of myself,” Dimitrov continued. “I’m really falling in love with that process again. Of course winning helps, don’t get me wrong. But there are so many other things that come on board that you need to be able to handle.”
Dimitrov: “win not just for me”
Against Berrettini, that equanimity was the difference. Two sets up, Dimitrov was pegged back after the roof closed mid-match, and by the third and fourth he was, by his own account, being outplayed. “He was outplaying me completely. There was not much for me to do,” he said. “But there is this little place where I was, okay, I might have a chance. Little by little you build that mental toughness, and when push comes to shove, I was really able to use it.”
The new outlook has a practical scaffold. Dimitrov has brought Jamie Delgado back into his team alongside David Nalbandian, to strip things down at a stage he is candid about being finite. “I’m on a timeline, so it was important to set the boundaries, set the goals,” he said. “We have a very clear goal, a clear vision of what needs to be done right now.”
He does not pretend the horizon is long. “I don’t know how much more I’m going to play. No one knows at the moment,” he said. What he does know is that the player now on court is one he feared was gone – the man whose best Grand Slam results, three semi-finals including Wimbledon in 2014, long ago hardened into a story of unfulfilled promise. A Queen’s title in 2014, a career-high of world No. 3 after the 2017 ATP Finals, then the slow decline, and this April a first fall outside the top 100 since 2012.
Asked about the affection his throwback game draws, Dimitrov did not feign humility, and found the warmth in something beyond style. “There’s a part of me that always wanted to win not just for me,” he said. “I think whether it’s for my family, my fans, every time I come back, I want to win, but also want to win for them, for everyone that is supporting me. That is my way as appreciation. I think maybe that’s the part that people are feeling.”
He next plays the British wild card Arthur Fery, the last home player standing, on a Centre Court that will roar against him. He is unbothered, and unwilling to speak the bigger ambition aloud, even as he refuses to deny it. “I’m going to approach this match as every other match,” Dimitrov said. “Nothing has changed on my side.”
