Grigor is back !

Dimitrov had to go through the qualifiers to book his ticket for the US Open. And he’s done it, with only two matches to play thanks to Virtanen’s withdrawal in the final round.

No big wins in qualifying, but they’re still two victories that are valuable for Dimitrov’s confidence. He’s played very little since Wimbledon and his only matches weren’t great, especially that very frustrating loss to Baez, where he clearly deserved to win the match but completely broke down physically. Apparently, he’s been training well since then and should be able to last in this first round, which will be less demanding physically given Popyrin’s profile. I’m still fairly confident about Dimitrov, who still has a good level of play, but is lacking in other areas.

He’s up against Popyrin, who’s been searching for his best tennis for months now and just withdrew from a Challenger with a leg injury. The Australian isn’t playing very well at the moment, and his only bright spot was in Montreal, a special tournament for him, where he benefited from Kokkinakis’ retirement before scraping through against Buruchaga, without being impressive. His only truly flawless big match was against Collignon, but after that he got blown off the court by Tirante. In other words, there was one good match, and the rest has been extremely average since. I don’t like his form, I don’t really like his attitude, and now the physical injury has been added on top of that. It’s a bit much for him.

Historically, he’s done rather well against Dimitrov. That’s not surprising, because with his serving quality and aggression, he can really hurt Dimitrov’s backhand, which needs time before he can then turn the match around in his favor. The fact is that right now, Popyrin is not confident, and we’ve got a motivated Dimitrov, with two wins under his belt and a crowd completely behind him. You see where I’m going with this.