“Here’s baby Fed”. Neither Grigor Dimitrov would be able to quantify the times in which his name was compared to that of Roger Federer. The Bulgarian tennis player has had to deal with constant comparisons with the Swiss legend for a good part of his career due to a playing style capable of combining elegance, effectiveness and spectacularity.
A comparison which, over time, has probably generated more negative effects than positive ones. It was as if the world needed a new Federer and Dimitrov had to fill that role.
Dimitrov and the comparison with Federer: “One of the worst things in my career”
“At first I thought it was funny and then I started… I’m not saying I hated it, but I didn’t like it because it didn’t make sense.
We are very different despite some similarities on the pitch. We’re just not the same people and I think that comparison wasn’t necessary. It was probably one of the worst things I’ve had to deal with in my career.
I never liked it and it never brought anything good from a personal point of view”, explained Dimitrov in an interesting interview with the New York Times. “Of course it’s a comparison that flattered me, but I always wanted to be myself.
One wish I would have for a kid is not to be compared to someone. Now I’m a completely different person and player. I had to make some tough decisions on and off the field. I can manage some situations better and this, even though I am closer to the end than the beginning of my career, allows me to look at things from a different perspective. I won some matches that perhaps in the past I would have lost in the last few months.”
