The 2023 season in tennis singles is over. For Bulgaria's best men's competitor Grigor Dimitrov, the campaign ended on November 5 after the final of the Masters in Paris, which he lost to Novak Djokovic in straight sets. Grigor played a magnificent tournament in the French capital and ended the year in an extremely positive way - a year in which he reminded of his class and gave hope to Bulgarian tennis admirers and his fans that the next 2024 will be even better, if only for him to find the necessary consistency and good mental resilience from tournament to tournament.

The dispute over the trophy in the "Bercy" hall was the second for the 32-year-old from Haskovo in his strongest season since 2017. Earlier in the year, Grigor also played for the title at the Geneva tournament, where he also unfortunately lost, this time to Nicolas Jarry. In addition to his two finals in 2023, Dimitrov added four more semi-final appearances (Rotterdam, Washington, Chengdu and Shanghai) as well as three quarter-final appearances (Marseille, Queens and Beijing). Grisho finishes the season at number 14 in the world rankings, with a balance of 41 wins and 21 losses and earnings of just over $2,700,000. Statistically, the best campaign for the Bulgarian since 2017.

Looking specifically at the statistics, it cannot be denied that Dimitrov was more successful six years ago. He won four titles, including his biggest to date, the ATP Finals, before also claiming his only triumph so far at the Masters 1000 in Cincinnati, taking the home title in Sofia and jubilating in Brisbane. Four of Grigor's eight trophies in his professional career came exactly in 2017. Six years later - quite a period for a tennis player at 32, our best men's player showed that he can still delight Bulgaria with strong performances. Especially in the second half of the campaign, when Grisho made a great Chinese tour - a quarter-final in Beijing, as well as semi-finals in Chengdu and Shanghai. And for the final, he played a brilliant tournament in Paris, where he was beaten in the match for the title by world number 1 Djokovic.

The race in the French capital stood out not only for Dimitrov reaching contention for the trophy, but also for the way he reached the clash with Djokovic. The Bulgarian defeated Daniil Medvedev (3), Stefanos Tsitsipas (6) and Hubert Hurkacz (11) on the way to the final, showing great tennis and character in decisive moments of his encounters with the top tennis players. Unfortunately, in the title match, he was unable to play the way he did in his previous five matches - with confidence, freedom and determination in the key points, which led to the defeat by the Joker.

Of course, this loss cannot in any way overshadow Dimitrov's overall performance in Paris, and on the contrary, it should motivate him for the upcoming season, which for him starts with participation in the tournament in Brisbane between December 31 and January 7. This strong second half of the campaign already passed should act as a springboard for Grigor at the start of 2024. Our best tennis player should certainly focus on strengthening his Grand Slam results, which have not been the best this year – reaching the third round of the Australian Open and the US Open, as well as the round of 16 at Roland Garros and Wimbledon. In fact, Grisho has only three Slam quarter-finals and three Slam quarter-finals in his career - for a talented player like him, this is just not enough.

Despite poor results in the top-tier tournaments, Dimitrov has shown in the last six months that he certainly has what it takes in terms of strokes, tactics and character to go far in his appearances on the ATP calendar. The Bulgarian, who has always been criticized, and rightly so, for the unstable mentality at key moments of matches, for the lack of consistency in matches for a longer period of time, answered his critics during the Chinese tour and in Paris, but whether will he be able to maintain and demonstrate again the high level of play in 2024?

We have yet to find out, but one thing is for sure - Grigor reminded us of some of his strongest moments from 2017, when he became world number 3. Now he has to prove to his fans and critics alike that this wasn't just an episodic blip, but the basis for an even better season - hopefully padded with titles, because the drought in that regard has already reached six full campaigns. /BGNES

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Stefan Ignatov, Sports Department of BGNES