‘Still grinding’ – Djokovic ‘proud of longevity’ ahead of 20th US Open campaign<\/p>\n
Video credit: SNTV<\/p>\n
Federer<\/a> and Nadal<\/a>, alongside Djokovic<\/a>, dominated the sport for more than a decade, with the trio winning 66 Grand Slam titles between them.<\/p>\n Dimitrov, 35, has not yet won a Grand Slam but has regularly reached the latter stages of major tournaments, losing to Nadal in the semi-finals of the 2017 Australian Open while also reaching the last four of Wimbledon and Flushing Meadows.<\/p>\n And the Bulgarian said he has keenly felt the absences of both Federer and Nadal.<\/p>\n “A part of me left tennis when Federer and Nadal retired. I know Novak feels the same way because I talked to him about it,” Dimitrov told Danish outlet SpilXperten.<\/a><\/p>\n “We reminded ourselves how exciting that era was, with all those challenges we had to overcome constantly.<\/p>\n “Having to face the three best players of all time almost every week was an incredible feeling. Today, it’s impossible for me to experience something similar.<\/p>\n “I don’t want to offend any player today but the big three era will always remain, for me, the greatest challenge a tennis player could face.”<\/p>\n Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner have taken on the mantle in recent years, becoming the dominant forces in the men’s game.<\/p>\n Former world No. 3 Dimitrov, meanwhile, suggested he has lost some of his passion for the sport.<\/p>\n “I have to be honest. For a few years now, I have been very far removed from everything that happens on the ATP tour,” he added.<\/p>\n “I continue to play but I no longer care as much about everything that goes on in my sport and I am no longer really informed.<\/p>\n “My whole life has always revolved around tennis and it makes me a little sad to see that I don’t even know the majority of players who are still active.”<\/p>\n He added: “Age may just be a number but, in our sport, it has a great influence. It’s not just about what happens on the court but also the interactions with others at tournaments.”<\/p>\n Dimitrov has fallen to 128th in the ATP rankings<\/a> and earlier this year failed to qualify for a Grand Slam for the first time since 2010 when he missed out on the French Open.<\/p>\n He was given a wildcard for Wimbledon, though, where he reminded fans of his talent with memorable wins over Jakub Mensik and Matteo Berrettini, before defeat to Brit Arthur Fery in a five-set classic on Centre Court.<\/p>\n Dimitrov has most recently been in action at the Davis Cup, beating Elmer Moller but losing to Holger Rune as Denmark got the better of Bulgaria.<\/p>\n Add TNT Sports as a preferred source here<\/a> to enjoy more content like this.Download the TNT Sports app on iPhone<\/a>\u00a0and Android<\/a> for clips, highlights and breaking news.Watch and stream top tennis action, including the Australian Open and French Open, live with TNT Sports on HBO Max<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"‘Still grinding’ – Djokovic ‘proud of longevity’ ahead of 20th US Open campaign Video credit: SNTV Federer and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":777299,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-777298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}