US Open: Brutal statistic highlights Grigor Dimitrov's Grand Slam misfortune after injury heartbreak
09/04/2024 11:09 AM
Grigor Dimitrov’s bid to win his maiden major title at the 2024 US Open came to a cruel conclusion when he was forced to retire in his quarter-final match against Frances Tiafoe due to an injury.
The Bulgarian star was trailing 3-6, 7-6(5), 3-6, 1-4 against Tiafoe when he walked to the net to shake hands with the world No 20.
The world No 9 had overcome Andrey Rublev in a fourth round US Open battle lasting three hours and 39 minutes in the previous round.
"I think it’s a combination of everything,” Dimitrov told the media after his retirement. “Clearly my rehab process is a little bit slower than before. I mean, I felt a couple of things prior to the match. It’s the game. It’s just the game, and I need to keep my head up.
"As I said, I just need to reassess a little bit of certain things that I can change. Can maybe do a little bit better. Also physically to the way that I have been preparing.
“But again, given all the circumstances from Montreal up until now, I wasn’t really sure I’d be even able to do as well as I wanted to do. And again, that’s what I’m saying I take this quarter-final any time."
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This is the second Grand Slam in a row where physical issues have ended Dimitrov’s tournament after he was forced to retire with a knee injury in the opening set of his last 16 Wimbledon encounter with Daniil Medvedev in July.
Dimitrov being derailed by injury issues at majors has unfortunately become a fairly common occurrence as this was his seventh mid-match retirement in his 56th Grand Slam tournament appearance.
Dimitrov’s Grand Slam retirements
2009 Wimbledon 1R vs Igor Kunitsyn – 6-3, 0-6, 0-3 r.
2012 Wimbledon 2R vs Marcos Baghdatis – 5-7, 1-4 r.
2021 French Open 1R vs Marcos Giron – 6-2, 6-4, 5-7, 0-3 r.
2021 US Open 2R vs Alexei Popyrin – 6-7(4), 6-7(4), 0-4 r.
2022 Wimbledon 1R vs Steve Johnson – 6-4, 2-5 r.
2024 Wimbledon 4R vs Daniil Medvedev – 3-5 r.
2024 US Open QF vs Frances Tiafoe – 3-6, 7-6(5), 3-6, 1-4 r.
Four of Dimitrov’s major retirements have come at Wimbledon, including his Grand Slam debut in 2009, while five have come since 2021 in an unfortunate and concerning trend.
In addition, Dimitrov suffered from physical problems in defeats to Aslan Karatsev in the quarter-finals of the 2021 Australian Open and Alexander Zverev in the third round of the 2023 US Open, but he completed these matches.
After the loss to Tiafoe, the 33-year-old was asked how difficult it was to brush off losing an opportunity to reach a major semi-final at this stage of his career.
"It doesn’t get easier, I tell you that much,” Dimitrov admitted. “But when you’ve done certain things a certain way throughout your career, I think a lot of moments outside of tennis really humble you in a very different way.
"That’s why when something like that comes around, for sure I take it and I hurt with it, you have to. I don’t want to just brush it off.
"I put it aside, but also I have a lot of exciting things ahead of me. I’m going to get home, and try to rest a little… heading to Asia to finish the year off. So you see, when you put it that way, of course you want to be here and fight for the trophy, but there’s always a brighter future in that sense.
"So will I hurt? Yeah for sure and it should. But I don’t want to just put it aside. I want to also reassess myself and everything that I’ve been going through, throughout these past three, four weeks and see the plus and the minuses. What can I improve, what I could have done better, what I need to do."
The furthest Dimitrov has progressed in a Grand Slam is the semi-finals, a feat he has achieved at Wimbledon (2014), the Australian Open (2017) and the US Open (2019).
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