Grigor Dimitrov and the Other Lost �Boys´ of Tennis

• Tennis News
• Editors Thoughts

Grigor Dimitrov has always been the nice guy in the circuit, courting no controversies, but only Maria Sharapova. He is also a perpetual ‘face of the future’, or perpetual ‘Baby Federer’ , as they call him.

We have been waiting for him to make that big move for long, and interestingly, Dimitrov seems not in any hurry. Rafael Nadal once observed the ridiculousness of tagging Dimitrov as the ‘next-gen’ player when he himself is older to him only by four years, so are Djokovic and Murray as well.

Roger Federer is 33, in fact older to the rest of the Big Four squad by five years, and no one has ever mentioned the trio as belonging to a different generation. Dimitrov, along with players like Milos Raonic, Kei Nishikori, etc., constitute a different generation only when they are put beside Roger Federer, but there is no need to be lenient towards them when it comes to expectations; their endless wait to win a Major is annoying not just for them, for the people as well.

Are Dimitrov and his pals happy to linger in the zone below the Big Four forever? Seems so. Once Michael Chang had mentioned how he had to change his protege Nishikori’s attitude when it comes to reverence for big names like that of Federer.

According to Chang, too much admiration can be a stumbling block for one’s own success; if they keep adoring their predecessors, they will remain in that sub-zone forever.