Bulgarian icon Grigor Dimitrov spoke to Bolavip about the evolution of tennis and how it is watching the illustrious Novak Djokovic not being as invincible as the Serbian legend once was.
Dimitrov’s comments for Bolavip came as Bulgaria faced Denmark in the Davis Cup, admitting that watching Djokovic fade is difficult to take, even if it is entirely inevitable. The 35-year-old argued that father time catches up with everybody in the end, and no amount of professionalism or preparation can hold it off forever.
Dimitrov also said the process is a natural part of any athlete’s career. The younger generation will keep improving and eventually push you off the throne, he explained, and at some point, the body simply refuses to do what it once did.
Bolavip at the Davis Cup.
Not easy to watch Djokovic struggle, Dimitrov says
Djokovic broke into the top 10 in March 2007 and, apart from a brief spell outside it between November 2017 and July 2018 due to injury, he has been a permanent fixture there ever since. Much of that time was spent as the world No. 1, a position he has held for a record 428 weeks in total, while he also collected 24 Grand Slam titles along the way.
That era is now over. Djokovic dropped out of the top 10 after the US Open and, although he reached the Australian Open final in January, he has not been the dominant force the tennis world had grown used to seeing week after week. Dimitrov says that shift is completely natural, a simple consequence of biology, and that it is still hard to watch.
“The players in today’s tennis are just bigger, stronger, faster, which is just a natural part of the evolution of tennis, but of course it is not easy to see Djokovic getting older, maybe struggling a bit. No matter how strong you are, it is inevitable that it will hit you eventually from a biological point of view,” Dimitrov told Bolavip.
Novak Djokovic and Grigor Dimitrov pose for a photo after the final of the 2023 Paris Masters.
There is more to life than tennis
For years, Djokovic aged like fine wine, but Dimitrov says that spending so long at the top of a professional sport, with everything the job quietly demands away from the court, eventually takes its toll: “Nature calls itself and it is going to happen, and when you have been in a competitive sport for so many years, with traveling, jet lag and all that stuff, it eventually catches up with you.”
Dimitrov also made it clear that seeing life as something larger than tennis matters to him, adding that still being able to live the dream as an older player leaves him feeling spoiled and privileged, and that he is certain Djokovic feels exactly the same way.
“In a way I also feel like it should, you know. There are also other parts to life than tennis. We have just been put in this position, a very privileged place. I feel spoiled and we should feel that way”, Dimitrov concludes the interview with Bolavip.
Djokovic at Wimbledon. (Getty Images)
Now ranked No. 12, Djokovic has still produced high-quality tennis this season, reaching the Australian Open final and the Wimbledon semifinals. He then crashed out of the US Open in the first round, beaten in five sets by Argentina’s Mariano Navone in a match lasting four hours and 36 minutes, his first opening-round defeat at a Grand Slam since the 2006 Australian Open.
He has played only 21 matches in 2026, winning 14 and losing seven, and has yet to lift a trophy. He also finished 2024 without an ATP title, although Olympic gold in Paris rescued that campaign. If 2026 ends empty-handed, it will be the first year since 2005 in which Djokovic has won nothing at all. Back then he was a teenager breaking into the top 100, and he has won something in every season since.
