Dimitrov

King No1e

G.O.A.T.
What happened? Just last year he was on the rise, ending #3 and winning the Championship, taking Nadal to the brink in Melbourne. Today he lost to Kukushkin, just one match in a string of inexplicable first-round losses. Has he burned out already? Or is it nothing to worry about?

Discuss
 
D

Deleted member 307496

Guest
What happened? Just last year he was on the rise, ending #3 and winning the Championship, taking Nadal to the brink in Melbourne. Today he lost to Kukushkin, just one match in a string of inexplicable first-round losses. Has he burned out already? Or is it nothing to worry about?

Discuss
latest


It's happening to him.
 
Dimitrov is a mystery. Loads of talent. Thats one guy I wish Sampras would have considered coaching. He may have gotten his head in order. On tennis and off the broads
 

davced1

Hall of Fame
I watched highlights from Vienna and he looks like he aged 5 years in just a couple of months. Looks much slower too.
 
D

Deleted member 307496

Guest
Well.. Sometimes you never know unless you try it.
With his wife and family I don't think he'd have time. Remember he had a kid in 2002, that kid would be 16 and highly demanding.

His life just isn't the same. He doesn't have the time for tennis anymore.

Then again Lendl helped later on. It's not too late. Wait until his kids are grown up and he might change his mind.
 

Edgecrusher

Professional
This guy is a mystery to me as well. Last year he finally lived up to all those expectations. And look what he´s done in 2018 ... Dimi, wake up!
 
He is probably depressed from balding, and his forehand and serve technique also looked different and worse - less penetrating and more compact on both shots
 

Chanwan

G.O.A.T.
He reached his goals and fell off a cliff. Still doing better than Sock though... - another WTF performer and Masters winner from last year
 
What happened? Just last year he was on the rise, ending #3 and winning the Championship, taking Nadal to the brink in Melbourne. Today he lost to Kukushkin, just one match in a string of inexplicable first-round losses. Has he burned out already? Or is it nothing to worry about?

Discuss
Reality kicked in
 

byealmeens

Semi-Pro
What happened? Just last year he was on the rise, ending #3 and winning the Championship, taking Nadal to the brink in Melbourne. Today he lost to Kukushkin, just one match in a string of inexplicable first-round losses. Has he burned out already? Or is it nothing to worry about?
I think both Dimitrov and Sock have loads of talent but struggle mentally, often leading to stretches of poor performance. I also feel the mental struggles are both on court (problem solving) and off (motivation). Oddly, they are different personalities, even though the issues seem very similar. I guess I've always felt Dimitrov had a better work ethic and a better temperament, while Sock had more of the Kyrgios mentality. So yes, I do think this is more concerning (and surprising) that Grigor continues to struggle in these areas.
 

heninfan99

Talk Tennis Guru
It's interesting that Dimitrov would pick a 2HBH coach.

That does suggest that Agassi is going to work more on tactics/training than the technical details of Dimitrov's shots (or at least not the BH).
Yeah it's more about strategy at that level. His strokes are fully formed and got him to #3 in the world.
Becker hand a one hander and coached up Djoker successfully.

Dimotrov has always stuck me as not having the inner belief he could win a slam.
 

IowaGuy

Hall of Fame
Becker hand a one hander and coached up Djoker successfully.

True, and Lendl coached Murray.

But, sometimes coaches do work on technical aspects. Edberg is said to have helped Fed with some technical aspects of his volleys and BH. Agassi is said to have worked with Djokovic on hitting a bigger FH, etc.
 

Red Rick

Bionic Poster
Dimitrov's talent is overrated because

- his shots look like Federer
- he has pretty good hands
- he's a great athlete

However, he doesn't have reliable fundamentals at all

- serve
- forehand
- return
- backhand

Are all either not as big a weapon as they should be, just a liablity, or just prone to breaking down.

Dimitrov does indeed have a very high skill cap to his game. But the problem is that he has to have like 82 components clicking perfectly to play his absolute best, whereas simpler players can just serve big and hit big forehands and be in a good place in life.
 

heninfan99

Talk Tennis Guru
True, and Lendl coached Murray.

But, sometimes coaches do work on technical aspects. Edberg is said to have helped Fed with some technical aspects of his volleys and BH. Agassi is said to have worked with Djokovic on hitting a bigger FH, etc.
Yeah, sometimes but it's rare for former top 10ers unless there's an injury. Nadal successfully tweaker his serve with guidance. Of course, Todd Martin ruined Djokovic's serve for a while and had to fire him.

Basically, strokes are set by 16 years old most of the time. The greats are 6.0s by this point and vectoring toward college or turning pro, tens of thousands of hours were already put into fine tuning the strokes.
Look at this
Gasquet's game hasn't changed much since he was a child.
 

upchuck

Hall of Fame
Nothing was more laughable than all the articles earlier this year predicting he'd win slams and even end the year number 1. When I saw them in January I said these people never learn.
 

wangs78

Legend
Motivation and mental toughness.

What probably happened to Grigor this year is a realization that he's already peaked and that the WTF he won last year was a gift with Goffin being his stiffest competition. The guy is 27, has never broken through in a high stakes match against a top player - came close maybe a couple of times, but in most of those important matches he just faded away after losing the first set or his serve. You look at the other contenders like Cilic and Del Potro and they actually broke though and won a Slam by age 27 and also proved very clearly that when they are hot they are unstoppable. No such luck for Dimitrov. Even when in good form he is quite stoppable. So as his lousy 2018 progressed, he must have thought to himself, probably while Nicole was providing him some much needed relief, "what's the point?". Just play enough to collect some paychecks and sponsor money for another 5+ years. Let all these young 19-22 year olds fight for the scraps from the Big 3 because all the trying and failing is just too agonizing.
 
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tennisfan2015

Hall of Fame
What happened? Just last year he was on the rise, ending #3 and winning the Championship, taking Nadal to the brink in Melbourne. Today he lost to Kukushkin, just one match in a string of inexplicable first-round losses. Has he burned out already? Or is it nothing to worry about?

Discuss
Must have had a photo shoot out last night.
 

tennisfan2015

Hall of Fame
Yeah, sometimes but it's rare for former top 10ers unless there's an injury. Nadal successfully tweaker his serve with guidance. Of course, Todd Martin ruined Djokovic's serve for a while and had to fire him.

Basically, strokes are set by 16 years old most of the time. The greats are 6.0s by this point and vectoring toward college or turning pro, tens of thousands of hours were already put into fine tuning the strokes.
Look at this
Gasquet's game hasn't changed much since he was a child.
@0:39
 

Red Rick

Bionic Poster
I honestly don't think Dimitrov is unmotivated. I think he's mentally fragile.

I like him though, so him dropping out of the top 20 makes me a little sad.
 

BeatlesFan

Bionic Poster
Sampras said he is never moving to the world of coaching. He said it's not for him.
Pete just reiterated that in the summer to Gimmelstob. Said even when his sons are grown, he has no interest to ever travel or train anyone. He was very emphatic.
 

carlitoo

Rookie
What happened? Just last year he was on the rise, ending #3 and winning the Championship, taking Nadal to the brink in Melbourne. Today he lost to Kukushkin, just one match in a string of inexplicable first-round losses. Has he burned out already? Or is it nothing to worry about?

Discuss

Nothing happened. Business as usual..
 

RaulRamirez

Legend
Grigor's still a mystery: Very talented, seems like a great guy and fairly intelligent (as a person, not a player).
I thought he had arrived last year to the point where he'd be a consistent Top 5 for the next 3-5 years. Not to be so far.
 

wangs78

Legend
Grigor's still a mystery: Very talented, seems like a great guy and fairly intelligent (as a person, not a player).
I thought he had arrived last year to the point where he'd be a consistent Top 5 for the next 3-5 years. Not to be so far.
He's clearly having a crisis of confidence this year, because he's losing to ppl he would have beaten in previous years. The fact that he is 27, the fact that younger players are having more success (Zverev, Thiem), and the accumulation of missed expectations have to be tough to deal with. No real sympathy from me though - he's still living what for most of us would be a dream.
 
The people that compared him to Fed did a big disservice to him early on. That's a lot of pressure to live up too. Had he just been some guy no one expected anything from his career would have been viewed in a largely different light. He still had a fine career but carrying around the future of tennis lable for several years is something that no on needs especially when they haven't even done anything.
 

Red Rick

Bionic Poster
The people that compared him to Fed did a big disservice to him early on. That's a lot of pressure to live up too. Had he just been some guy no one expected anything from his career would have been viewed in a largely different light. He still had a fine career but carrying around the future of tennis lable for several years is something that no on needs especially when they haven't even done anything.
I also think he tried for too long to play like Federer.
 
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