Grigor Dimitrov is still working to make the most of his once-legendary potential

When I made my first trip to the Australian Open, in 2011, Grigor Dimitrov was the young man everyone in Melbourne Park wanted to see. He was 19, he had been the No. 1 junior in the world, he played just like Roger Federer, and he was making his main-draw debut at the Australian Open.

The local Bulgarian fans chanted his name—“GREE-gor Di-MEE-trov”—so loudly you could hear them five courts away. Fans and agents and writers gathered in droves to watch him practice. One woman, seeing him set up to serve, said to a friend, “He even stands like Fed.”

When he won his first-round match—his first-ever at a major—reporters jammed into one of the tournament’s tiny, secondary interview rooms to hear what the presumed future of tennis had to say. As we were walking out, one of those reporters whispered to me, “You’ll remember this day.”

I do remember it, obviously, but not for the exact reasons my colleague meant. Dimitrov, we know now, didn’t turn out to be Federer, or the future of tennis. (Though he did get to harmonize with the Maestro in a group called the One-Hand Backhand Boys.) He has had a very good career—three-time Grand Slam semifinalist, ATP Finals champion, No. 3 ranking—but he has spent most of it well outside the Top 10. Dimitrov seemed to be living proof that you need more than picture-perfect, Federer-esque strokes to become one of the game’s GOATs.

Or at least that’s what we thought he was. Now, 13 years and 700 matches after his debut Down Under, a 32-year-old Dimitrov is suddenly a man to watch again. He’s coming off a surprisingly consistent 2023. He just won his first tournament in six years, in Brisbane. (Highlights above.) He’s back up to No. 13 in the rankings. He’s serving better than ever, thanks to an adjustment to his toss. While he’s hardly the hot commodity he was in 2011, the crowds were back, and the chanters were chanting his name, as he walked into John Cain Arena to play his first-round match against Marton Fuscovics on Tuesday.

There’s only one problem with being a man to watch: The expectations that come with it. After his title in Brisbane, a first-round loss in Melbourne would have been a major letdown, even against Fucsovics, a muscle man who had won two of their previous three meetings.

Dimitrov seemed to feel the weight of that new pressure in the early going. He lost the first eight points and went down two quick breaks. He double faulted, shanked his ground strokes, and struggled to control the ball in the hot conditions. Was he still up, physically, to the task of slugging it out in the summer heat against a guy as rock solid as Fucsovics?

The answer, we found out three-and-a-half hours later, was yes. After going down a set and a break, Dimitrov slogged back to win, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (1), 6-2. In fact, it was Fucsovics who collapsed physically and struggled to stay upright in the crucial third-set tiebreaker. Dimitrov squandered 16 break points, but he stayed patient and, in the Federer tradition, used his entire arsenal of shots—slices, volleys, drops, forehand drives—to wear the Hungarian down.

The moment of truth came with Dimitrov serving at 3-4 in the third set. Twice he faced break point; if he had lost one of them, Fucsovics would have served for a two-sets-to-one lead. In the past, Dimitrov might have coughed up a double fault in this situation. This time, his serve was a weapon rather than a liability. On the first break point, he fired a service winner; on the second, he made another first serve and followed it with a jumping forehand winner. There was a newfound confidence in both shots.

“It’s always tricky when you start a Slam,” Dimitrov said. “I was kind of hoping that, you know, I would have a better-playing first match. But it is what it is, you need to go through these matches.”

“I had to really pick and choose my moments where I could really press and where I could hurt him the most.”

Back in 2011, in that first press conference in Melbourne, I can remember being surprised that Dimitrov wasn’t cocky. He was a thoughtful guy who answered questions earnestly, and often groped, not always successfully, for the right words to express himself. Thirteen years later, he’s still that way, and he still sounds like he’s searching hard for the right answers, in his tennis and his life.

On Tuesday, asked to reflect on his success at 32, and what he might have liked to change about his career, Dimitrov let loose with two long answers.

“There’s so much that happens in life, and there’s so much that [happens] on and off the court that some things take time,” he said. “I had to make a lot of changes in my life overall. I had to build up a new team. I had to find a way how to work smarter. I had to go through the small beliefs every single day.”

“I feel so much more humble than I’ve ever felt,” he continued, “and I think it feels like I’m starting to be more comfortable in my own skin whether I win or lose. And I think this is where a lot of good things can come from.”

Dimitrov can still sound like the wide-eyed rookie of 2011, who’s trying to learn something new from every match, believing that his best still lies ahead. He started his career as a flashy wunderkind who seemed destined to be an underachiever, but now he seems destined to finish it as one of those guys who got the most out of his game.

It won’t get easier in Melbourne; he plays local favorite Thanasi Kokkinakis next. Win or lose, though, the match will be part of his longer-term learning process. As he said in his press conference, growing up in the era of the Big Three prepared him for anything he might face now.

“I'm not complaining I played in that era, I loved it,” Dimitrov said with a laugh. “I would never give it up for anything. The experience that I gathered throughout the years and playing against these guys, my God, honestly, after that, nothing can scare you.”