{"id":63034,"date":"2024-01-17T08:00:26","date_gmt":"2024-01-17T13:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=63034"},"modified":"2024-01-16T22:22:52","modified_gmt":"2024-01-17T03:22:52","slug":"is-grigor-dimitrov-a-threat-at-the-australian-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2024\/01\/17\/is-grigor-dimitrov-a-threat-at-the-australian-open\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Grigor Dimitrov A Threat At The Australian Open?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\">After defeating Marton Fucsovics in the first round, Grigor Dimitrov should be considered a threat at this year\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/australian-open\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Australian Open<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Many are thinking it but not many are saying it out loud. That\u2019s understandable as it\u2019s been three years since Dimitrov made it to the quarterfinals of a Major. We\u2019re here to start discussing it out loud. Here\u2019s why Dimitrov is a dark horse this fortnight.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"p1\">Is Grigor Dimitrov A Threat At The Australian Open?<\/h2>\n<h3 class=\"p1\">Recent Form<\/h3>\n<p class=\"p1\">Dimitrov\u2019s form is inarguable. From a bit of a dry spell, Dimitrov has now went the past five months achieving the following:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"ul1\">\n<li class=\"li3\"><span class=\"s1\">Five top 10 wins over Alcaraz, Medvedev, Rune x 2 and Tsitsipas.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"li3\"><span class=\"s1\">Paris Masters final and Shanghai Masters semifinal.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"li3\"><span class=\"s1\">First title in over six years in Brisbane.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"p1\">The Bulgarian has played with clarity and assuredness to get these results. What\u2019s changed?<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"p1\">Coaching Team<\/h3>\n<p class=\"p1\">Having Dani Vallverdu back on his team has made a huge difference for Dimitrov.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The former world #3 was often prone to being too flashy. Vallverdu has stripped things right back, giving Dimitrov a much simpler game plan: attack with the serve and forehand and use the backhand slice much more.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Put simply\u2014attack when you can and be consistent when you can\u2019t attack.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Dimitrov\u2019s backhand slice has some of the highest backspin rates on the tour. It\u2019s incredibly difficult to attack and can be a headache for most of the men on the tour that aren\u2019t used to playing against it. Relying on this strength rather than going for lower-percentage flashy topspin backhands has made a world of difference to his game.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Sounds simple, right? Well there\u2019s one other factor that\u2019s allowed Dimitrov to do this.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"p1\">Physicality<\/h3>\n<p class=\"p1\">Vallverdu\u2019s tactics only work if Dimitrov is comfortable hanging in long physical rallies\u2014the Bulgarian is looking fitter than ever.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Take his first round win. Fucsovics has often been a banana skin for seeded opponents at Slams.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Of all the ways to beat Fucsovics, outlasting him physically is not usually on the bingo card. Djokovic at the US Open in 2018 and now Dimitrov are the only two I&#39;ve ever seen do it. Both incredibly hot days.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Gill Gross \u2600\ufe0f (@Gill_Gross) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Gill_Gross\/status\/1747126003733066232?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">January 16, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">As noted by Gill Gross on X (formerly Twitter,) very few have been able to beat Fucsovics in a physical battle. On a sweltering day in Melbourne, however, Dimitrov did just that.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The former semifinalist here has been in 16 Grand Slam matches longer than the three and a half hour mark he played against Fucsovics. He\u2019s lost 11 of those matches\u2014historically, he has had a tendency to wane as the match goes on longer and longer.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"p1\">Going Forward<\/h3>\n<p class=\"p1\">Physically fitter than ever, in great form and backed by the right coaches for him, Dimitrov\u2019s draw won\u2019t give him too much fear.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"ul1\">\n<li class=\"li3\"><span class=\"s1\">Second round: Kokkinakis has shown he can be outlasted physically in the past.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"li3\"><span class=\"s1\">Third round: Neither Davidovich Fokina nor Borges have great hard court pedigree.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"li3\"><span class=\"s1\">Fourth round: Medvedev will be the real test but the Russian has shown vulnerability in longer matches here in Australia (4-4 in matches over three hours). If Dimitrov can take it to a fifth set, he\u2019ll have a good chance.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"p1\">It&#8217;s a big &#8220;if&#8221; to make it passed Daniil Medvedev. Until then\u2014you read it here first!<\/p>\n<p><em>Main Photo Credit: Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After defeating Marton Fucsovics in the first round, Grigor Dimitrov should be considered a threat at this year\u2019s Australian Open. Many are thinking it but not many are saying it out loud. That\u2019s understandable as it\u2019s been three years since Dimitrov made it to the quarterfinals of a Major. We\u2019re here to start discussing it [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3704,"featured_media":60905,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,3,2],"tags":[498,411,3692],"class_list":["post-63034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australian-open","category-atp","category-featured","tag-daniil-medvedev","tag-grigor-dimitrov","tag-marton-fucsovics"],"modified_by":"Yesh Ginsburg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3704"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}