Grigor Dimitrov remains one of the most complete grass-court technicians of his generation, a one-handed backhand player whose slice, footwork and touch suit the surface. Returning from a torn pectoral muscle and ranked outside the top 100, he climbed from 20th to 17th in the men’s GTC Grass Rankings and finished the season with a GTC Grass Rating of 107.
Grass at a glance
- GTC Grass Rating: 107, 17th in the men’s rankings (20th before the season)
- Pillars: Lawn Form 54, Arsenal 69, Wimbledon 58, Nerve 52
- Nationality: Bulgaria
- Best Wimbledon result: Semi-final (2014)
- Grass titles: Queen’s 2014 (and the Wimbledon boys’ singles in 2008)
- Plays: Right-handed, one-handed backhand
How Grigor plays on grass
Dimitrov’s grass game starts with the backhand slice. Hit low and late, it stays under the knees of taller opponents and lets him reset rallies on his terms. He pairs it with a fluid service motion that relies on placement more than pace, a forehand he can flatten when the ball sits up, and soft hands at the net. His Arsenal score of 69 reflects that range of shots rather than any single overpowering one.
Movement has always been his advantage. He stays low through the hips, slides well on worn baselines and covers the drop shot as well as anyone his age. The surface exposes him when opponents serve big and deny him rallies, because he does not generate as many free points as the leading servers.
His Nerve score of 52 is the weakest of his pillars. He can win long matches on craft, as he did at Wimbledon this year, but the deciding moments of tight five-setters have often gone against him.
Grass record
Dimitrov announced himself on grass by winning the Wimbledon boys’ singles in 2008, beating Henri Kontinen in the final without dropping a set. His senior peak came in 2014: he won Queen’s, beating Stan Wawrinka in the semi-final and Feliciano López in a final settled by tie-breaks, then reached the Wimbledon semi-final after beating Andy Murray in straight sets in the quarter-final. Novak Djokovic beat him there in four sets.
He has been a regular in the second week since. He lost to Holger Rune in the 2023 fourth round, and in 2025 he led Jannik Sinner by two sets to love in the fourth round before a torn pectoral muscle forced him to retire.
The 2026 grass season
That injury shaped his 2026. He returned to the tour only in late October 2025, and by June he had just two tour-level wins and had fallen to 146 in the rankings. Mallorca gave him a wildcard, and he reached the quarter-final before Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, the eventual champion, beat him 6-3, 6-3. His rating moved from 102 to 103.
Wimbledon also gave him a wildcard. He beat Matteo Berrettini 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 5-7, 6-3 in the third round to reach the fourth round for the sixth time, the best tennis of his comeback. Arthur Fery, a British wildcard, then beat him over five sets, the final set going to a 10-7 tie-break, as Fery became the first British wildcard of the professional era to reach the quarter-finals. Dimitrov’s rating rose to 107.
Looking ahead to 2027
At his current ranking Dimitrov will again depend on wildcards or qualifying for some grass events, and a schedule of one warm-up event plus Wimbledon is the likely shape of his summer. The main question is physical: a full season without injury would lift his Lawn Form score, which suffers from how few grass matches he has played lately. The Nerve pillar is the other area to address after losing a deciding tie-break at Wimbledon. A realistic target is another second-week run at Wimbledon and a rating back in the low 110s.
