Bulgaria's Grigor Dimitrov is finally living up to his potential - opinion

This time 10 years ago, the world of tennis was beginning to fear that it would soon be a world without Roger Federer.

The then 32-year-old had just gone a season without winning a Grand Slam for the second time in three years and had failed to reach the final of a Major for the first time since 2002, dropping to his lowest ranking (7) in 11 years in the process.

Such fears of him being in the final stages of his career were eased that summer though, not only by the fact that he reached the Wimbledon final but also because his heir appeared to have been found: a 23-year-old called Grigor Dimitrov.

The Bulgarian was already nicknamed Baby Fed by those who had watched him rise from the junior ranks, and watching him destroy reigning champion Andy Murray on Centre Court in the quarter-finals, it was hard not to draw comparisons with the Swiss maestro. He had a similar service motion, a similar one-handed backhand and a similar ability to hit some spectacular winners.

After that performance, it felt inevitable that he'd go on to become one of the best players in the world, and he looked to be living up to the hype when in 2017 he reached the Australian Open semi-finals and played excellently in a narrow defeat to Rafa Nadal before winning the ATP Finals as well as the Cincinnati Open, ending the year as world number three.

The match in Melbourne against Nadal was particularly impressive, with him going to toe to toe with one of the sport's all-time greats for five hours, playing some beautiful tennis in the process.

Things went drastically downhill after that year though with him not winning a single title and only reaching the last four of a Grand Slam once from the start of 2018 to the start of 2024, usually going out in the first three rounds.

However, he finally ended that title drought in Brisbane this month, and heads into the Australian Open very much looking like the player that inspired so much excitement at the same tournament seven years ago.

He was steadily improving throughout 2023 and showed just how far he'd come that autumn, first by beating Carlos Alcaraz on his way to the semi-finals of the Shanghai Masters, before getting the better of Daniil Medvedev, Hubert Hurkacz and Stefanos Tsitsipas on his way to the final of the Paris Masters.

By the end of the year, he'd beaten seven top-10 players and had returned to the top 15 in the rankings after five years away. With him playing as well as ever, it seemed only a matter of time before he got his hands on a title again, and that proved to be the case.

He lost his first set of 2024 - 6-4 to Andy Murray - but didn't look back after that, winning the rest of them on his way to glory at the Brisbane International last week. He admittedly had a fairly straightforward run to the final, but the final itself was anything but with the 32-year-old producing one of his best performances in years to beat world number eight Holger Rune, one of the biggest talents in the world.

On display throughout his first week down under was the work that he's done with coach Jamie Delgado - who formerly worked with Murray - in the past year to get back to where he belongs.

He is in perhaps the best place he's ever been physically, being more muscular than ever while maintaining his flexibility that is surpassed only by Novak Djokovic. Specifically, Delgado has said that the Bulgarian has put on around six kilograms of muscle since they started working together at the end of 2023.

Just as important as his physical improvement has been the progress he has made mentally, which Delgado himself has spoken of.

"I think in big moments he’s being a bit braver now than he was," Delgado told the Daily Express in November.

"When I saw him play some of the bigger guys at the beginning of the year (2023) he was a bit passive and didn’t look like he really believed he could win. And now whether he wins or loses you can feel that he’s much more positive and trusting his game more.

"He wants to get involved in those big matches again and I think for a little while, the last couple of years, I think he lost the confidence that that could happen."

You need only compare one of Dimitrov's performances from the past few months to one from over a year ago to see proof of that renewed confidence.

More so than ever now, thanks to that confidence and his more muscular physique, he has the ability to attack his opponents with high-risk shots in a bid to win points himself rather than just try not to lose them.

For example, he's often hitting far more aggressively from his backhand side, taking the initiative himself in a change not too dissimilar to the one Federer made at the start of 2017 that played a huge part in his resurgence that year.

He's defending better than ever when he needs to as well. Against Medvedev in Paris, he constantly sliced his backhand knowing that the Russian lacked the attacking abilities to respond with winners, while against Rune in Brisbane, he hit his returns deep as he knew his opponent couldn't resist positioning himself extremely aggressively, meaning such returns were often landing uncomfortably at the Dane's feet.

The Bulgarian and his team are getting their tactics spot on, and he has the ability, clarity and consistency to execute those tactics.

“I want to say I’m a better player now," he said after beating Rune, and it's difficult to argue against that being the case.

Whether his best is good enough for him to finally become the Grand Slam winner people once expected him to be is uncertain, but it's certainly good enough for him to be a contender again.

He'll have felt even more sure of that himself after seeing the draw for the Australian Open, which has given him what should be a straightforward route to the Round of 16 where he's likely to face Medvedev, with a probable clash with Rune after that.

Given that he's gotten the better of both of them in recent months, he'll very much be heading to Melbourne with his sights set firmly on the semi-finals.

Seven years on from when he produced a performance that made him seem destined for great things at the same stage of the same tournament, he'd be better equipped than ever to finally fulfil that destiny.