'Comparison to Roger Federer influenced Grigor Dimitrov's career'- Krajicek
The 1996 Wimbledon winner Richard Krajicek believes that the comparison with Roger Federer made by people and media on Grigor Dimitrov influenced the Bulgarian's career a lot. In 2017 Dimitrov won his maiden Masters 1000 title at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati and then the ATP Finals in London. For years he was targeted as the next world No. 1 and a future star in tennis, but he did not meet with expectations. 'For a long time the BabyFed was really tough for him', Krajicek recognized. 'He was a very talented player but of course, there is only one Federer. Dimitrov looks like Federer, he has a nice technique, good player, unbelievable guy like Roger, but it was difficult and not only to deal with Federer but also with Nadal, Djokovic, Murray who were still playing. It was tough to break through. People said he looks like Federer but he is not even close. You lose the confidence. Last year I was so happy for him that he made to the top 3 and win World Tour Finals. This year he was supposed to make the next step, he had a bad year but, who knows, next year might be a good one. But before that, the BabyFed had an impact on his career.'
Krajicek won the 1996 Wimbledon title. Considering that since 2003 only Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray won at Wimbledon so far, would he have won there if he played in the Big Fours era? 'I don't know. (At the time) Pete Sampras was one of the best grass-court players. And one of the reasons why Federer didn't win a Grand Slam title for the last couple of years until the last year was that he always he had to beat at least two (Big Fours). One year he beat Murray in the semifinals and he played Djokovic in the final at Wimbledon. I am happy I was playing in that era because otherwise, it would have been more difficult.'
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from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2Q3yrJ3
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