Grigor Dimitrov has almost become a forgotten man on the tour. Once anointed by some as the heir apparent or at least a player who could challenge the “big three”, he has found himself consistently grinding it out on the tour over the last years with no big prizes to show for it. Despite this, in 2022 the Bulgarian finished inside the world top 30 for the tenth consecutive year, and is currently firmly inside that milestone once again, at world number 20.
Dimitrov has not won a title on tour since 2017, when he earned four, most notably the Nitto ATP Finals, and Cincinnati Masters. But he is putting together a nice 2023 and showing a resurgence of late, particularly since May when he reached the finals in Geneva.
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Since then, he has reached the round-of-16 at both Roland Garros and Wimbledon and has played solid tennis in his last 5 tournaments. He has taken down players such as Taylor Fritz and Frances Tiafoe along the way.
On Thursday, the former world no. 3 defeated Emil Ruusuvuori of Finland 6-4, 6-3 to advance to the quarterfinals of the Mubadala Citi DC Open in Washington. It was a fairly clean performance by Dimitrov who was efficient with 22 winners to just 11 unforced errors and only lost his serve once in the match despite 4 double faults.
Dimitrov will face world no. 36 Ugo Humbert next with a potential match with Tiafoe in the American’s home tournament looming on his side of the draw. It is the first time he has reached the quarterfinals in Washington since 2013 and he has not advanced past this round during his career.
Though he may not be labeled “baby fed” anymore, Grigor Dimitrov is still capable of beating pretty much anyone on tour on a given day. As we are less than a month from the US Open, he looks to put together a run there similar to his 2019 effort, where he advanced to the semifinals in New York.
