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The Guardian: Grigor Dimitrov is the new Roger Federer

Thu, Jun 18 2009 11:15 CET 3658 Views 1 Comment
The Guardian: Grigor Dimitrov is the new Roger Federer

Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria slips as he plays a shot to Gilles Simon of France during the Queens Club tennis tournament in London June 10, 2009.
Photo: Reuters

"Grigor Dimitrov is the new Roger Federer," says coach Peter Lundgren about Bulgarian youngster who is under his wing, ahead of Wimbledon, tennis' holiest of holies.

Speaking to British broadsheet The Guardian, Peter Lundgren believes that the Bulgarian teenager has "all the strokes" and that potentially he could become even bigger than Roger Federer, the Guardian has said.

As a child, Dimitrov was coached by his father, Dimitar, in Haskovo. But as the player developed, he obtained his first foreign coach, notably, Spaniard Pato Alvarez, who worked with Britain's newest hope, Andy Murray. Alvarez has reportedly said that Dimitrov is the best 17-year-old he has coached. During his  success at the 2009 ABN AMRO in Rotterdam, Dimitrov and  Peter Lundgren met the former coach of Marat Safin and Roger Federer. Lundgren has been the Bulgarian's mentor ever since and he has ceaselessly praised Dimitrov, saying that "he is better than Federer was at his age".

"Grigor has got all the strokes," Lundgren said. "He has the serve, the slice, topspin, everything. He just needs to get stronger, that's all. Above all, he has the fire, the will to win."

Lundgren started coaching Dimitrov early this year, at the Mouratoglou academy in Paris. Their first tournament together was in Rotterdam, when Dimitrov beat Thomas Berdych, a top-10 player two years ago, and then took a set off the world No1, Rafael Nadal.

"I think he thought that he had the level to play consistently with the top players. But the challengers are at a really high level these days," Lungren told the Guardian.

"He needs to get stronger and to get a routine, to know what to do. In the last four months he has come a long way. He could easily be in the top 100 soon, no problem. Maybe win one or two rounds on the ATP Tour here and there. He has the fire. He wants it."

Dimitrov started the 2008 Grand Slam season with a quarterfinal apperance at Roland Garros, eventually being defeated by Poland's Jerzy Janowicz in three sets. However, he went on to win Wimbledon after defeating Henri Kontinen of Finland, 7-5 6-3 in the final. He won the title without dropping a set despite playing with a shoulder injury throughout the tournament. The victory saw him join former junior champions Roger Federer and Stefan Edberg and guaranteed him a wildcard entry into the 2009 Wimbledon men's draw.

His success continued at the US Open, which he won on September 7, defeating American qualifier Devin Britton in two sets, 6-3 6-4. On his way to the title he also defeated top seed Tsung-hua Yang of Taiwan in the semifinals. After the tournament Dimitrov announced that he was ending his junior career and focusing on improving his ATP ranking.

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Comments

Anonymous TennisMasta Fri, Jun 19 2009 02:17 CET

Great to see new talent, particularly of the style of Roger Federer. It is quite amazing how the words "Roger Federer" are used today from getting visibility to fresh talent like this to getting anything published on the internet.


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