Is the 2014 US Open Grigor Dimitrov's time to shine ?
Could Grigor Dimitrov do something similar? Opportunity certainly seems to be there for someone with the will to seize it. Defending champion Rafael Nadal, who took out Dimitrov in his first Grand Slam quarterfinal at the Australian Open in January, is not playing due to injury; Juan Martin del Potro, the 2009 champion, is also absent as he recovers from wrist surgery. Of all the top players, Roger Federer – the man to whom Dimitrov is so often compared – enters on the best form after reaching the finals of Wimbledon and Toronto and winning Cincinnati, but for all his resurgence in 2014, the five-time US Open champion still isn’t immune to mid-match lapses or early upsets. 2012 champion Andy Murray is out of form and hasn’t beaten a top-ten player since winning Wimbledon in 2013 – and fell quite tamely to Dimitrov in straight sets at Wimbledon – and Stan Wawrinka hasn’t really kicked on since winning the Australian Open in January.
If anyone is taking advantage of this state of affairs so far in 2014, it’s been Dimitrov and his peers Milos Raonic and Kei Nishikori – rather endearingly nicknamed the ‘Little Three’. Dimitrov turned things around rather significantly after that US Open loss in 2013, going on to claim his first title in Stockholm; in 2014, with coach Roger Rasheed proving an effective mentor, he’s won titles in Acapulco, Bucharest and on the grass of Queen’s Club, reached a first Grand Slam quarterfinal at the Australian Open and a first semifinal at Wimbledon, beaten top-ten players on four occasions and cracked the top ten himself.
It’s been an impressive rise and while Dimitrov still isn’t immune from an early upset – he went out in the first round of Roland Garros to Ivo Karlovic and lost in the first round of Cincinnati to Jerzy Janowicz – he’s shown that when he gets on a roll, he can compete with the very best. Moreover, he seems to have the legs now to sustain back-to-back grueling matches without running out of steam and he comes into the US Open on a decent amount of form after reaching the semifinals in Toronto.
Dimitrov has also secured a top-eight seeding – he is the seventh seed for the last Grand Slam of the year – meaning that he will avoid Djokovic and Federer until the quarterfinals.
So perhaps the idea of Dimitrov as the US Open champion isn’t quite as crazy as it sounds.
He never won a main-draw match at the US Open , but this young Bulgarian is fifth favourite with the oddsmakers to win the title.
Article by Hannah Wilks.
