Almost all of us want to see Grigor Dimitrov perform well, right? He’s one of the loveliest players in tennis and obviously a really nice guy. He gets along well with other players and fans, and rooting for him seems…well…wrong. Fortunately for him and his fans, he has returned to his 2017 third-place finish.
Dimitrov has long been nicknamed “Baby Federer” because he plays with the same poise and dazzle as tennis great Roger Federer, albeit in a different style. It may also explain why Federer and Dimitrov never seemed to have harsh words for other players. He respects others as well as himself.
In fact, his friends seem so loyal to him that former players come to watch him play. This happened during the Miami Open when all-time great Serena Williams showed up to Dimitrov to watch the match. When Dimitrov stormed into the final, Williams sat in the crowd and cheered as loudly as the other fans.
In his post-match press conference after winning the semi-final against Alexander Zverev, the Bulgarian was asked about Williams watching the match and said: “She’s fantastic, we keep in touch and she tells me she Will come and see me; tennis is tennis, but it’s the friendship and that’s one of the best things here, we’re all living our dreams.”
Sure, Williams is a great player and loves the game, but taking time out of his own schedule to travel and watch friends play is another thing entirely. As Dimitrov suggests, this is true friendship. It should also be noted that Williams was on hand to watch Yannik Sinner play Daniil Medvedev earlier in the day.
Maybe this was supposed to be a storyline between Dimitrov and Sinner in the Miami Open final: Serena Williams Friendly. More likely, Sinner, Williams and Dimitrov are all good people who enjoy being around other good people. We should all be so lucky.