"I can live with that": Grigor Dimitrov sees positives of being in Big Four era and beating them all in his career

Grigor Dimitrov reflected on sharing the era with the Big-4 and having defeated each of them. The Bulgarian's career coincided from his early steps on the ATP Tour with the successes of Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, and Andy Murray.

The former world No. 3 managed to secure victories over each of them and clinched several titles, including the Masters 1000 Cincinnati Open and the 2017 ATP Finals.

After reaching the final of the Miami Open, with significant wins over Carlos Alcaraz in the quarterfinals and Alexander Zverev in the semifinals, Dimitrov prepares to play another Masters 1000 final, this time against Jannik Sinner. He was asked if he considers himself unlucky to have coincided throughout his career with the dominance of the Big-4.

"Totally the opposite, actually. Totally the opposite," Grigor Dimitrov said. "Very lucky. How often you say I played in an era against the best players and you have beaten them all?"

"It's great. I'm sorry, but I can live with that. You know, all that, the titles and all this, yeah, it's great. But the journey, the ride, it was, for me personally, not having these guys around, it's a little sad," he added.

Dimitrov commented that he prefers not to play too frequently against the Big-4, but he acknowledged that the experience of competing with some of the greatest tennis players in history helped him to build his mental toughness:

"I don't want to play them, don't get me wrong (smiling) at the moment, but it's kind of sad," the Bulgarian said. "I love watching them play. I love competing against them, and you can always learn something."

"I think throughout the years I have had so many quarterfinal matches and third-, fourth-round matches where I had to play against them. But that also maybe shaped me to have that mental toughness and to do certain things different at that point in my career, like them," he added.

Dimitrov guaranteed his return to the top-10 for the first time in almost 6 years. Despite being close to turning 33 years old, he seems to be experiencing a second youth and mentioned that the differences in the playing styles of each member of the Big-4 and their paths to success allowed him to learn and improve significantly:

"You can certainly learn a lot from each one, very different," Grigor Dimitrov said. "I think each one had a very different way of doing things, but each one of them had amazing qualities."

"I think in a way they are the pioneers of nowadays tennis for us. I don't know. I think overall, to have players like that with such a diversity that all of them had, Novak is still playing and Andy, as well, but to really see that is I think going to be a little bit more rare," he added