nearly two decades ago a new youngster entered the ATP tour with Big Dreams And even bigger hype we knew he would be good but we had no idea how he was going to perform in a decade ruled by The Big Three although it took him 5 years to win his first ATP title in 2013 this guy would eventually break into the top 10 and make deep runs in slams the following year a year in which he also beat the 2013 defending Champion Andy Murray in straight sets in The Wimbledon quarterfinal by 2017 he had officially taken center stage on the ATP Tour and was busy pushing RF in a all to five sets in the semi-finals of the Australian Open although his performances the following Seasons weren't necessarily bad they paled in comparison to his high standards of 2017 and questions were now being asked on whether he could fulfill his potential with frequent physical issues and a lack of consistency the future didn't look so bright anymore that's the story of the man who went by the name baby Federer but we're not here to talk about him today it's all about grigor demitro because right now he is balling and is literally a nightmare for almost anyone on the tour he made me feel like I'm 13 years old you know it was crazy consistency of beating the top players that that to me is way bigger success than than anything else and if history tells us anything and if what we've seen for over a year now isn't just a facade rger demitro at almost 33 years old might just have the best days of his career ahead of him I can still be a contender for for the big titles and I've proven it again in the past months we're now kneed deep into Gregor dimitrov's Resurgence and he's been really Sensational all the request of a video on him didn't go unnoticed of course but just how good has demitro been putting aside the hype and the sentiments we've seen crazy flashes of Brilliance absurd highlights but just how consistent has the Bulgarian been over the last 12 months well I've got an answer according to almost every metric dimitrov is having a top 10 worthy stat in almost every category match win percentage percentage of service points won maybe just outside the top 10 and return points won in the last 52 weeks but this year it's been a different story only a handful of players have won more matches than demitro in 2024 with a 22 and six record at the moment demitro has won almost 80% of his matches and he's an exclusive company right now and if we take a closer look at how he performs Under Pressure only jokovic Sinner and alcarez have better ratings according to the ATP leaderboard and when it comes to winning and deciding sets how many players have done that more than dimitrov the answer none I studied dimitrov's results and performances from May 2023 up until now and in the 18 matches that went the distance dimitrov only lost three of those matches Novak jokovic in Rome last year denil Medvedev in Vienna and tooga Runa in this year's Monte Carlo masters a match where he actually held two match points so with that said what has been the major factor behind Grier's Resurgence any ideas last year grigger recorded his 400th career win at the 2023 changdu open and became the first man born in the 199 90s or later to hit that Milestone and only the 10th active men's player players born in the 9s have been notoriously seen as Underachievers having been suppressed by the big three for most of their career and now being overtaken by the Brilliance of the nextg but the Bulgarian has been among the few outliers demitro finished 2023 with seven wins against top 10 players and won more matches after the US Open than anybody not named Yanik Sinner and he's carried that form into this season ending his title drought and playing some amazing tennis following his win over his very in Miami demitro had this to say about his Resurgence I kept on kept on believing kept on doing the work and I think that's the discipline brought me to that uh I think to that moment there's nothing else I didn't kind of deviate from from from my target not even my goal that was just I had like small targets throughout uh I mean every single week I had a target for um and also to be able to to put my body through through all that on on daily basis was also uh um very important for me now I wouldn't exactly call Gregor's Resurgence a comeback per se because he never really went away despite all the challenges he faced he never left I never left 15 years already so I'm still here I'm not going anywhere dimitro has either finished the year inside the top 20 or top 30 every year since 2013 so he's been pretty much consistent in that regard but there was always a feeling that he might have been underachieving with his talents seeing him return to a level as high as his form has been in the last year is is simply unbelievable and in my opinion is deserving of all the attention having been kicked out of the top 10 towards the end of 2018 demitro had struggled to return to that spot ever since last year many of us believed that dimitrov was already playing top 10 level tennis but he was really just unlucky with the draws and slams and to add to that Alexander zov made it his personal mission to deny the Bulgarian on all fronts a straight sets lost to zov in the round of 16 at Roland garos a straight set loss again to Zev in Cincinnati another lost his verev at the US Open and a loss again in changdu after winning their first encounter in 2014 dimitrov had to face seven consecutive losses against the German so it couldn't have been more satisfying to see that a win over ziv of all people guaranteed a return to the top 10 in Miami grigger won that match despite not boasting the shot quality that Zev had on the serve return and on the backhand as we can see from tennis insights having dealt with the mental Scar Tissue formed from his consistent losses to Sasha for about a decade I'm now eager to see how their r R will unfold from here before this year we were already hooked on Grier's performances but one thing was missing an ATP title it's a little weird to think that after his first title in 2013 dimitrov only won titles in 2014 and 2017 which could point to a lack of consistency on that front sometimes he seemed to me like the kind of player who would play a few brilliant matches spaced out over the course of the year and then just disappear the rest of the time he has always had the talent but not the results to back it up but after winning the title in Brisbane with an impressive win over hogar Runa in January demitro must have been happy to get the monkey off his back a six-year title drought ended and for fans who might be saying well it's only an ATP 250 what does it matter I'm pretty sure many of us tennis fans know how winning titles can only help one psychologically and mentally during his period of resurgence dimitrov has made it to two Masters 1000 finals in Paris and Miami and has also reached finals in Marseilles and Geneva a closer look at his game and some of the narratives that fans have about him might help to put some of my observations into perspective why does grigor demitro slice so much I understand that many of the fans who ask this question might be casual fans who've picked up on some patterns in his game it's a valid question because in his 25 matches that have been charted on tennis abstract grigger is over 60% on his backhand slice that means 60% of his shots coming off the wing are slices to put that into context no other top 10 player can boast of more than 20% in that stat my response to the question is that there are a million reasons why demitro slices more than any player on tour with his backhand I'm not sure if answer was helpful okay now I'm going to be sharing a few reasons why grigger uses the slice so much and why it's so effective for him slicing neutralizes the opponent's ability to attack if you take a closer look at griger slices you'll notice that they drop way lower than the slices of other players this forces the opponent to utilize more of their racket head speed into lifting the ball rather than trying to attack him or hit a winner like we can see here so with the player's inability to attack those low slices it becomes a lot easier for grigor to pounce on their return with a forehand another reason why dmitrov slices a lot is because it's a higher percentage shot for him especially against some of the best two-handed backhands in the game I reckon it's a lot easier for demitro to trade slices than to do so with backhand Top Spin it's also easier for him to redirect the ball down the line with his one-handed backhand also it's important to keep in mind that a very good slice is sometimes more effective than mediocre Top Spin throughout demetra's Resurgence he's always utilized a brutal change in Rhythm to throw opponents off balance on their contact points and the slice has been a really good weapon for him in that regard there aren't many better ways to mix up the pace and change momentum another reason would be that a good slice as a weapon in its own right dimitrov's ability to slice extremely short or extremely deep very close to the Baseline can potentially set up a next offensive move for the Bulgarian also slicing short brings a player close to the net and you can then hit them with a passing shot it's always tricky to handle for most players slicing deep into the court also makes opponents uncomfortable and unless you're maybe Rafa and a few others you might find it difficult to take advantage of grigger slices and last but not least slicing helps a little with energy conservation when needed dimitrov has all the shots in the books he reminds me of Federer I understand that the feeling of nostalgia sometimes gets the better of us and we're really just looking for players that were as aesthetically pleasing to watch as Roger Federer truth be told their styles are a bit similar but Roger of course is way more Superior I'm going to stop with the comparisons because it's like a death sentence comparing grigor to Federer and according to grigor no one should have to face those comparison it's just unfair this is I think one of that was one of the most I would say irrelevant uh comparisons in my eyes in my view and I think in everybody's and what I'm the most happy with that I made name for myself that being said I find grigor demitro to be a very interesting player to analyze he's proven that he can go toe-to-toe with the big boys in terms of first serve speed and accuracy his Ace rate this year has also been in the double digits and I should mention by the way that's better than every other member of the top 10 well except herkos of course and when looking at his percentage of service points one excluding Aces and double faults only Novak cner and cipas can boast of a better record in that stat also we already know that grigor dictates point with his forehand at every opportunity his forehand Top Spin speed in particular is even better than almost every player on tour so it's not really surprising to see that a lot of Grier's success has come from his serve plus one combo a big first serve and a huge forehand to take care of business dimitrov also stands out for his excellent First Strike tennis brother he's not the type of player to enjoy those long boring and often neutral rallies like Zev and meddev among his matches that have been charted on tennis abst ract dimitrov has had an outrageous 87.2% success rate on his serve and volley attempts making him one of the most successful here similarly he's also been more successful at the net than almost every player and then we have the backhand slice which we've already talked about extensively and how he uses it as a setup shot for his powerful and aggressive forehand looking at his conversion score which calculates the percentage of points one when a player is on the attack grigger topped the charts in Indian Wells in a time where the weaknesses of the one-handed backhand have been exposed more than ever demitro has done a really excellent job in holding up and not being exploited like the others with his slice and big Drive backhands oh and those beautiful return winners [Applause] also defensively demitro has been solid and has been able to steal lots of points on the defense we also saw how consistently deep his returns could be against Carlos alarz let's also not forget the athleticism the physicality and fluidity of movement not to mention the shot making that demitro brings to the table oh he's got this one as well the change of direction using the entire width of the court and the sharp angles he manages to create are some of the top reasons why Grier's game is so captivating to watch oh and and I almost forgot the highlight reels drop volleys and trick shots demitro is simply one of the most entertaining players to watch for so long we hadn't seen him consistently healthy for long periods of time but now we are seeing the former world number three on full display demitro shot selection and dynamic game had been so captivating but something seemed missing there was a lack of that Killer Instinct at times with those instincts now added to his game I don't think there's a long list of players who would be eager to face dimitrov dimitrov doesn't have the mental strength to defeat the very best like cner and jokovic my response to this take is how many players can actually face this version of cner and even jokovic at 70% in finals I'm not going to lie we haven't always known grigger for his mental strength against elite players in the past many fans love him more for his flare and Charming looks but unless you've been living under a rock you would have noticed that all of that has changed the Bulgarian beat three top 10 players in Miami herkos alcaraz and Zev he defeated denil meddev herkos and cipas before losing to Nole and Paris last year he also beat Runa in Brisbane and Beijing and alcaraz in Shanghai that is a massive step up for me so I'm not quite sure if this argument holds any water looking at the recent ELO ratings dimitrov is in the top five it doesn't get any better than that if you ask me with his Ultra aggressive style of play taking the ball early and finishing at the net rger has been playing with more conviction and Poise than ever and it appears to me that one of the main factors behind his remarkable consistency of late has been the ability to unlock new levels mentally the fact that he got beaten easily by CER and jokovic in those Masters 1000 finals in Paris and Miami changes nothing at least in my opinion demitro won't win a grand slam he was unlucky to play in The Big Three era and right now the nextg is taken over he will never make the most of his once legendary potential I I've seen this narrative play out over and over again with the big three winning so many slams we sometimes tend to define success in tennis solely as winning a slam which really shouldn't be the case of course it's the ultimate goal and even dimitrov knows that for a fact you know grass slam is like I think your own your own approval I would say and I never wanted to look at it that way and because it's not a nice way to to treat yourself I feel but it's also something that that still keeps the fire going in me I would say that is probably the last um piece of the puzzle really for much of his career demitro has been straight jacketed by comparisons to Federer and it's left an unshakable impression on the hearts of many fans bagging that elusive slam might be a little bit of a stretch at the moment but I don't really care if he never wins a slam dimitrov will always be an absolute joy to watch and while we'll continue to be faced with the overwhelming temptation of expecting him to win a major I'm not sure I would be any less satisfied if he doesn't pull off an Evanovich he's already won titles on all surfaces and at all levels including the ATP finals which he won in his debut 99% of tennis players would kill for the former world number 3's career demitro turns 33 in May and truth be told these brilliant plays and results are not going to last forever so we might want to enjoy it while it lasts but with cner alcaraz and the younger players grabbing all the headlines the spotlight has been dimmed just enough for demitro to play with more clarity than he's ever done so in his career and he can now do so as a Darkhorse in major tournaments that's not a bad place to be not a bad place at all if you enjoyed this video please hit that subscribe button and let us know if you want to see deep Dives on any other player or any other topics on the tours covered and if you missed out on our TFO Deep dive I have it showing on the screen for you to watch right here