After moments of flattering to deceive, Dimitrov offered a display of the most refined polish on Wednesday, showcasing the strides made under Australian coach Roger Rasheed. For all his sabotaging of the British party, the armoury he unleashed in Murray’s direction could hardly be overlooked.
Plus, he left no ambiguity as to his own hunger to make the breakthrough.
“As one of the younger guys, I know that we strive for this, we’re hungry for it. We want to prove ourselves, to show to the big guys that we’re just around the corner.”
Dimitrov, on this evidence, has already arrived. Ever since he spent 18 months as a teenager at the Sánchez-Casal Academy in Barcelona, the same place where the adolescent Murray honed his craft, he has had the game, but what cements his pretensions to be the next Roger Federer is the fact that he also has the image.
Even his rivals on tour know it: Dimitrov is the slicker, the Lothario, the wolf of the pack. In Rome this summer, Murray playfully took hold of a hairbrush and blow-dryer to prepare him for the cameras, while Djokovic gatecrashed his press conference at Indian Wells to announce: “My friend Grigor here, best-looking guy on tour. You don’t need to talk about your tennis too much “ you have had so much success this year. Let’s talk about your looks.”
Grinning shyly at first, ‘gorgeous Grigor’ waited for the laughter to subside. “Well,” he replied. “What do you want to know?”
His billing as ‘baby Fed’ has stuck from the age of 16, when his then mentor Peter Lundgren argued that he was better by that stage than even the great Federer. Dimitrov purports to have accepted the parallels, and it is intriguing that he recently chose as his agent Tony Godsick, the Jerry Maguire figure to – yes, you guessed it – Federer.
Godsick believes passionately that Dimitrov, more than other Wimbledon surprises such as huge-serving Milos Raonic or Australian wild-child Nick Kyrgios, is best-placed to supplant the top four and he is far from alone.
Rasheed, who has looked after a formidable roster of star clients from Lleyton Hewitt to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, needed no second invitation to come on board.
For all the hoopla, Dimitrov continues to project a sincere humility.
Having fired his last winner against Murray, he made a point of looking up to the skies and blowing a kiss. “I was blowing kisses left, right and centre,” he admitted. “I had those good memories from my junior years, when I was playing on the outside courts. Back then, I was so excited just to be in the tournament, so this day was just a dream for me. I made sure that I took a moment to appreciate it.”
He even made sure to bow for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge afterwards.
So, if you came expecting any trash-talk, any grand Kyrgios-style statements, forget it. Dimitrov is the gentle type, and it seems this is just how Sharapova likes it. While his belle can often convey a flinty, supercilious attitude, he helps to bring out her more tender nature.
“Grigor is the best thing ever to happen in my life,” the Russian gushed in a recent ESPN interview. “He is so sweet and considerate, and because we both play tennis, he understands the life I live, because he’s living it, too. I love him so much.”
As if to safeguard that smooth-operator status, Dimitrov stopped midstream during a match in Miami this season to help a ball-girl suffering with heat exhaustion. He lost, but his stock soared. It promises to rise several notches further should he shock Djokovic tomorrow to make the final.
Would Sharapova, 10 years on from her own moment in the sun as Wimbledon champion, be imparting any advice? “She says, ‘Win it.’” In the hour of his ascendancy, it seems as good a tip as any.
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