Grigor Dimitrov and Henri Kontinen wrote a memorable page of tennis history on Sunday when they won their respective title matches in singles and in doubles at the O2 Arena ten years after battling for the Wimbledon Junior trophy. Then Dimitrov beat Kontinen 7-5 6-3 to win the Wimbledon Junior singles title in 2008.
Ten years later Dimitrov crowned a successful 2017 season by winning the biggest title of his career after beating David Goffin 7-5 4-6 6-3 in his bebut at the ATP Finals. With his title at the London O2 Arena Dimitrov has won the fourth title in 2017 (a career-high) and the eighth of his career.
Dimitrov got off to a flying start to his 2017 season with a title in Brisbane after beating Dominic Thiem in the quarter final, Milos Raonic in the semifinal and Kei Nishikori in a three-set final. At the Australian Open the Bulgarian beat David Goffin in the quarter final before losing to Rafa Nadal in a five-set semifinal. A few weeks later Dimitrov beat David Goffin in straight sets in the Sofia final. One week later Goffin took a re-match beating Dimitrov in three sets in the quarter finals in Rotterdam.
During the grass season Dimitrov reached the semifinal at the Queen’s before losing to eventual champion Feliciano Lopez. The Bulgarian went on to reach the fourth round at Wimbledon without dropping a set, but lost in straight sets to eventual champion Roger Federer.
Later in the summer Dimitrov won his first Masters 1000 title in Cincinnati without losing a set in the whole tournament. In the final he beat Nick Kyrgios in straight sets. He was among the favourites to reach his second semifinal at Grand Slam level at the US Open, but lost to Andrey Rublev in the second round.
The player from Haskovo had a solid Asian Swing season in which he reached the semifinals in Beijing after wins against Juan Martin Del Potro and Roberto Bautista Agut and the quarter finals in Shanghai. In both tournaments he lost to world number 1 Rafa Nadal in three sets. He then reached the final in Stockolm, where he lost to Juan Martin Del Potro.
Dimitrov made his debut at the ATP Finals in London with a three-set win over Dominic Thiem before completing his perfect record in his round-robin group with two wins over David Goffin and alternate Pablo Carreno Busta. In the semifinal Dimitrov came back from one set down to beat Jack Sock in three sets before scoring the biggest win of his career by defeating Goffin in three sets in the title match to lift the ATP Finals title as undefeated champion.
Dimitrov has climbed to a career-high number 3 in the year-end ATP Ranking behind Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer.
“I was a little bit tired. I had to play a few back-to-back matches against solid opponents. Throughout the whole week, I have been keeping a good level. I knew that David is going to try something new. He had to be aggressive, so that he doesn’t let me play my game. That was very obvious from the first point. I really had to dig deep especially in the first set, which was the key. In the third set I just felt that I could have done obviously a few things differently. I got to be a little more aggressive, and that was the break. What made the difference this year was the consistent work. I felt I had a good mental toughness throughout the whole year. Physically we keep on working during the tournament, after and before the tournament. When my body is allowing me to do this kind of preparation, I feel I have already an advantage over any other player. If you want to be up at the top, there are no shortcuts. I am fully dedicated. This year I have done a lot of work on that. I sacrificed days that I should have probably had off, maybe to go to a little holiday here and there”.
The Bulgarian player has become the first debutant to win the ATP Finals title since Alex Corretja in 2008. After dropping to his lowest positiion in more than three years at world number 40 and losing both of his ATP World Tour Finals, Dimitrov’s career has made a major breakthrough in his career midway last season when he started his coaching relationship with Dani Valverdu, who worked with Andy Murray and Tomas Berdych in the past.
“It’s a great platform for me to build on for next year. It’s going to be amazing in the off-season. With the right set of mind, with the right support, things happen. For me, that period helped me a lot. I think I needed that. In that particular moment, I really realised what I really need to work on, who are the real people around me, who really counts on me, who matters to me. There are so many lessons that I took out of that period”, said an emotional Dimitrov after the match.
Next year is going to be very interesting with emerging stars, who could fight for the top eight positions, and players like Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka, who will make their come-back after being sidelined by injury problems in the second half of the season.
“It’s going to be obviously pretty interesting, especially the beginning of it. There are still a few names that are going to come back and play. You should never count them out. Honestly, I don’t really want to think about that right now because it’s something that they have been in the game for quite some time. I just want to focus on my side of what we are doing with the team, how we can improve, how we can get better, and next time I play them, how I can beat them. Also again, to be consistent when I play those kind of matches in any type of tournament. The most important is to stay on the ground. and put your head down, even work harder because once you get to that point, everything becomes so narrow for you. I just want want to keep the same line. I don’t want to get too hyped up because I have done well.I am now the world number 3. My goal is to win a Grand Slam title. That has been a dream of mine. Now slowly I think this thing is getting there. I have had good results in the past but I need to be more consistent on those kind of events, and in the same time raise up my level on occasions like this”.
Henri Kontinen and his Australian doubles teammate Henri Kontinen beat Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo 6-4 6-2 to win their second consecutive doubles title at the year-end tournament. The Finn – Australian team are the first pair to win two consecutive titles at the ATP Finals since Bob and Mike Bryan in 2003 and 2004. Kontinen and Peers won four consecutive matches after losing their round-robin opening match against Ryan Harrison and Michael Venus.
In the 2008 Wimbledon Junior final Kontinen beat Bernard Tomic in the semifinal before losing the final against Dimitrov. The Finn also played the US Open Junior final against Christopher Rungkat later that year.
After ending his singles career due to injuries Kontinen started focusing on doubles. The Finn has won 16 ATP doubles titles in his career. He reached the quarter finals of the men’s doubles at Wimbledon in 2016 teaming up with John Peers and won the mixed doubles at the same tournament with Heather Watson.
Kontinen became the 50th player in history to reach world number 1 in the ATP doubles ranking on 3rd April. Last January he teamed with Peers to defeat six-time champions Mike and Bob Bryan for their first Grand Slam doubles title at the Australian Open. Kontinen and Peers also reached the semifinals at Dubai, Rome. and Wimbledon. They defeated Harrison and Venus in the quarter finals at Wimbledon after saving one match point but lost to Kubot and Melo 9-7 in the fifth set in the semifinal. Kontinen and Watson reached the mixed doubles final for the second consecutive year at the All England Club, but lost to Jamie Murray and Martina Hingis.
“We have had an amazing run here again and saved the best for last. We fire up a bit more playing against Kubot and Melo. We always know playing this team, pretty much all the teams in this tournament. We are going our best to win. Luckily we were able to do that today”, said Kontinen.
