Alexander Zverev and Grigor Dimitrov have a few things in common: both men were in the top three in the ATP rankings, they will meet in the third round of the 2023 US Open, and they have never won a Grand Slam tournament. During a conversation with a journalist at a press conference, the German was not particularly surprised by the absence of a major in the list of his future rival:
“Am I surprised? That’s a tough question,” Zverev answered first. “There are many players who have not won any. Tsitsipas didn’t do it, and neither did I…”
And when the journalist replied that Grigor Dimitrov had been on the circuit longer than him, the world number 12 developed his argument:
“Yes, but I think we have done better than them in recent years in terms of results. And then we come back to Novak (Djokovic), Rafa (Nadal) and Roger (Federer). Not many players like Berdych, Ferrer, Nalbandian or Söderling have won. It’s not easy to do and even more so when you have three guys who dominate for 20 years. I’m more surprised by the fact that he never made it to the finals, it’s surprising, but it’s not that he never won the finals. I don’t want to disrespect them but I think too many players haven’t won any.”
Zverev reached Grand Slam final but Dimitrov did not
Grigor Dimitrov has reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the US Open in his career, losing to Rafael Nadal (in five sets), Novak Djokovic and Daniil Medvedev, respectively. Alexander Zverev reached the final of the 2020 US Open and made it to the last four, losing after leading by two sets in a fifth-set decider against Dominic Thiem.
Obviously the careers of these two men are not over and they still aspire to win one of the major four tournaments. A quest that never stops for players of this level and whose next step will be Saturday evening’s encounter to try to qualify again for the round of 16 at the New York Grand Slam.