THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

July 2, 2026

Grigor Dimitrov

Press Conference

G. DIMITROV/J. Mensik

7-6, 4-6, 7-5, 6-3

THE MODERATOR: Grigor, I think we could all see on court how happy you were to win that match. Give us your thoughts.

GRIGOR DIMITROV: Great match. I mean, that's all I can say. I mean, the match had everything. I tried to stay as focused as I possibly can throughout the whole match. I think also the conditions were very tricky, especially early on with the sun coming down. It was also a little bit windy. Then they had to close the roof. Just a lot of different momentums throughout the match.

I was very happy that I was just able to control him as much as I could and play a very good game when I had to.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. The win was special for you. Can you share what it means for you at this stage of your career to beat Mensik, who was just in the semifinal in Paris?

GRIGOR DIMITROV: First, he's such a great competitor. I have to say I played him a couple times before that. I really love the way he's competing. I can definitely see how much he's improving throughout the months. He's still fairly young. He's going to have some I think great results in the future, of course.

For me, I favor myself a lot when I'm playing on a grass court, especially out here. Of course, the win means a lot to me. In the same time I think my first round meant in a nice and positive way a lot more to me because of how everything was just unfolding, being able to come out to play in front of the crowd.

In saying that, I'm just very proud that I was able to play good tennis, play within myself. I enjoyed a lot, as well. Those are the things actually I'm most happy and proud with.

Q. How much do you try and organically create your own positive energy or turn the negative energy into positive in these matches? The crowd was behind you. Do you try and pump yourself up?

GRIGOR DIMITROV: I think it's important not only where I'm at in my career, but I think being able to run my own race at the moment. I think it's really about it for me.

As I said, winning or losing, it's such a fine line between those two things, right? We know that. Different players, whether you're 35, 25, I think it's the same. We all have the same baseline.

For me, like, I'm looking out to squeeze other things of myself right now. That's why I'm saying it in the nicest way possible. I'm just running my own race.

I want to improve on the things I feel like I can improve, things that I've maybe neglected, things that I'm maybe not on it enough throughout my career, or even in the past year.

That's why I also have a lot of people around me to really remind me of those fundamentals. Right now I'm just focusing on that more so than the game itself.

Q. Do you watch football? Are you going to cheer for Mexico tomorrow?

GRIGOR DIMITROV: You're putting me on the spot now. Wow. This is always the case. Bulgaria, Serbia thing. You're going to put me on the spot (smiling).

I'm watching, yes. It will be difficult to watch that match. It's late. It's late. So I'm biased. I have to support I guess.

What also has been interesting is watching the World Cup and seeing when you play in the World Cup how the team is developing the game, how the players are feeling the pressure and all that. I think I've had a great example of some matches I've watched in the past days where you could definitely see the emotion, enthusiasm. I was getting very inspired by that.

I mean, I love sports. Anything that has a great story, a great heart, I'm in.

Q. For many players, they can get themselves physically back from an injury, but the problem is pushing themselves mentally. How do you train yourself? Is that something that's in you?

GRIGOR DIMITROV: You learn. I mean, you learn. Fear is not a friend. Again, it's such a fine line between those two things. If you want to go out there and compete at the highest level, you need to be able to push yourself to the limit.

I think when I say I've suffered through my career with minor injuries, big injury, what happened last year and all that, why am I here if I'm not putting everything on the line again? If I don't have that, then there's not going to be a point for me to be competing anymore sort of on the biggest stage of our sport, here at Wimbledon.

Again, anything can happen. I can get injured again. You can slip. You might have an off day. Those things are just as vital, they're there. But you have to, like, push yourself mentally to stay as fresh as possible, aware as possible, and really dig down and ask yourself the questions, what you really want, and how do you want to go about doing your business.

There's a lot of thoughts that are creeping in. I have to take them, I have to embrace them. If I'm forceful of those thoughts and try to suppress them, I think that is worse.

I can even say there's a bunch of moments throughout the match today where maybe if I would have handled them better mentally, match could have been different, maybe in straight sets or maybe could have gone the other way.

I'm just dealing with what I have in front of me now and trying not to overthink, which is one of the most difficult things clearly in our sport.

You have a split of a second to make a decision. I had to stay as present as possible, eventually get myself back on the horse, just try to apply my game.

It's a daily work. It's not something that you just wake up with. You have to measure a little bit what's really important to you.

As I said, the past year I don't think the focus was the game so much itself, it was a whole other thing. That's why I feel like I'm running my own race right now and my competition at the moment becomes very different. I know if I'm able to put certain pieces in the right place, also my game looks very different, as well.

Q. David Nalbandian is a hell of a player, but different to you. What did he bring to the table? The second one is, did you help develop the UltraFino Rotondo you're wearing.

GRIGOR DIMITROV: I'll start with the second one because I've never actually been asked this question in the press conference.

It's a family business, right? We've been connected for quite some years. We discuss a lot of thoughts and ideas. We bounce ideas off each other. I think everybody's contributing to the brand in a very specific and technical way.

I think early on it was a lot of development, a lot of testing. I think for me that was in a way the fun part. I think now we're being so recognized with the brand, I see how well it develops. I still like to see the uniqueness of it, that we have that niche place for it.

I'm very proud of Rodolfo, the whole family there. Everyone has been working so hard to produce unique pieces so far. I think the Rotondo is one of my favorite ones. I still have some of the first ones. I think the Rotondo, with that you can really see the difference. There's a lot of new things that we are doing that are brewing right now. I think the future looks very bright on that.

I'm excited because also it's something I'm passionate about.

Q. Nalbandian?

GRIGOR DIMITROV: Very specific person in a good way, of course. We talked I think a while back. We were trying to get to know each other first and foremost. I just didn't want to have someone to have someone with me. I always loved watching him play. I played once against him on grass. That was not so good for me. That was many years ago at Queen's.

I love how fearless he was when he had to play any match. He's such an amazing I think competitor. At the stage where I was last year coming from an injury, I know I definitely needed that push. He's been able to ignite a few places in me, in my mind, that I think were a little dusted, so to speak. He's been able to push me in the right direction with a very I would say authoritative but very humble way. The way he delivers the information, it kind of sparks some things in you.

First, he's very good with that. And on the game itself, we work on very, very few specific things 'cause, I mean, my game is fairly developed already. There's not really secrets in certain moments with things that I will do, players expect me to do.

I just know that I cannot only play good tennis, but execute a very different game in a different moment where no one else can see it at times, in order for me to try to get back to the top again, because that's my goal.

Having to play guys like today, there's no way I can just sit on the baseline and rally with them. That's just not going to happen. I need to work on that other part of I think of my mindset, my game, and develop all that together with my physicality.

Q. Have your experiences this week been healing in any way for you mentally, given what happened?

GRIGOR DIMITROV: Yeah. Every match you win, it's great. It's as simple as that. As I said out there on the court, I know it sounded like a bit of a cliché right now, but it's really not about winning or losing for me. I am happy. Don't get me wrong, of course I'm very happy. This week has been the best week in the past 12 months, without a doubt.

I'm so grateful also to get the opportunity to compete out here. If not, I probably had to play quallies. Wimbledon has been so amazing to me by granting me the wild card. I just want to make sure I make the most out of it.

Above all, I've been preparing myself. I was pushing myself on daily basis. Only I know what I've gone through in the past months. It is what it is.

Right now I'm in a place where I'm in the third round of Wimbledon. Body's holding up fairly well. There's really not that much else to add other than that this is okay, this is great, this is in front of me, and that's what I have to deal with.

That's also the part in our sport that we don't have much time to appreciate, to cherish. We only have couple of hours before I start preparing for the next match.

From that aspect, I just really try to stay in the moment as much as I can, as I said, embrace it, cherish it, do the right things, have the right nutrition, get some rest, enjoy again, then come out there and do what you love doing.

Everything else, how the cards will unfold, we don't know. We have now, and I'm really focused on that part right now.

Overall, as I said, I'm in a better place with all that. There's still a very long road ahead of me. The year is long.