Brutal statistics underline Grigor Dimitrov's Grand Slam bad luck after his heartbreaking injury

Grigor Dimitrov's attempt to win his first major title at the 2024 US Open came to a cruel end when he was forced to retire from his quarterfinal match against Frances Tiafoe due to injury.

The Bulgarian star was trailing 3-6, 7-6(5), 3-6, 1-4 against Tiafoe when he walked to the net to shake the world number 20's hand.

The world number ninth had defeated Andrey Rublev in the fourth round of the US Open, which lasted three hours and 39 minutes.

“I think it's a combination of everything,” Dimitrov told the media after his retirement. “My rehab process is obviously a little slower than before. I mean, I felt a few things before the game. It's the game. It's just the game and I have to keep my head up.”

“As I said, I just have to think about a few things that I can change. Maybe I can do a little better. Physically too, the better I prepare.

“But given the circumstances since Montreal, I wasn't sure if I would even do as well as I wanted. And I'll say it again: I'll take this quarter-final any time.”

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For Dimitrov, this is the second Grand Slam tournament in a row where physical problems have ended his career, after he had to retire from his Wimbledon round of 16 match against Daniil Medvedev in the first set with a knee injury in July.

Unfortunately, it has become quite a common occurrence for Dimitrov to be forced out of major tournaments due to injury problems, as this was his seventh mid-match retirement in his 56th appearance at a Grand Slam tournament.

Dimitrov's Grand Slam retirements

2009 Wimbledon 1R vs Igor Kunitsyn – 6-3, 0-6, 0-3 R.
2012 Wimbledon 2R against Marcos Baghdatis – 5-7, 1-4 r.
2021 French Open 1R against Marcos Giron – 6:2, 6:4, 5:7, 0:3 r.
2021 US Open 2R against Alexei Popyrin – 6-7(4), 6-7(4), 0-4 r.
2022 Wimbledon 1R vs Steve Johnson – 6-4, 2-5 r.
2024 Wimbledon 4R vs Daniil Medvedev – 3-5 r.
2024 US Open, quarterfinals against Frances Tiafoe – 3-6, 7-6(5), 3-6, 1-4 r.

Four of Dimitrov's major retirements have occurred at Wimbledon, including his Grand Slam debut in 2009, while five more have occurred since 2021, representing an unfortunate and worrying trend.

In addition, Dimitrov struggled with physical problems in his losses to Aslan Karatsev in the quarterfinals of the 2021 Australian Open and Alexander Zverev in the third round of the 2023 US Open, but he completed those matches.

After losing to Tiafoe, the 33-year-old was asked how difficult it was to shake off the loss of the chance to reach an important semi-final at this stage of his career.

“It doesn't get easier, I can tell you that,” Dimitrov admitted. “But when you've done certain things in a certain way throughout your career, I think a lot of moments outside of tennis humble you in a completely different way.

“So when something like this happens, of course I accept it and it hurts me, you have to. I don't want to just brush it off.

“I've put it aside, but there are also a lot of exciting things ahead of me. I'm going to come home and try to rest a bit… and then go to Asia to finish the year. When you look at it that way, of course you want to be here and fight for the trophy, but in that sense there is always a better future.

“So will I be in pain? Yes, definitely, and I should be. But I don't want to just brush it aside. I also want to reevaluate myself and everything I've been through in the last three or four weeks and see the pros and cons. What can I improve, what could I have done better, what do I need to do.”

The furthest Dimitrov has reached at a Grand Slam is the semifinals, which he achieved at Wimbledon (2014), the Australian Open (2017) and the US Open (2019).

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