Grigor Dimitrov could be in unfamiliar territory following his early exit from the Monte Carlo Masters.
Dimitrov suffered a pectoral injury at Wimbledon last year, and was subsequently out of action for nearly four months.
The Bulgarian has only won three of his 10 matches since then, with Dimitrov falling to his lowest ranking in over a decade after the Miami Open.
Dimitrov is now set to fall even further after his first round defeat to Tomas Martin Etcheverry at the Monte Carlo Masters, which could even prevent him from playing the French Open.
Grigor Dimitrov will have to play Grand Slam qualifying for the first time since 2012
Dimitrov reached the Monte Carlo Masters last year, and will now lose 190 ranking points to subsequently drop outside the top 100 for the first time since 2012.
The former world number three is currently placed at number 135 in the live rankings, and Dimitrov will now have to play in French Open qualifying, with the entry cut-off coming when the ATP rankings are updated next week.
Due to the aforementioned pectoral injury, Dimitrov was forced to miss the US Open last year, which was the first time he had missed a Grand Slam since the 2010 US Open.
However, Dimitrov’s ranking drop means that he will now be unable to get direct entry for the French Open this year.
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This means that Dimitrov will have to play qualifying at a Grand Slam for the first time since the 2011 Australian Open.
While this will likely be disappointing for Dimitrov, he did manage to come through qualifying at the Australian Open that year before losing in the second round of the main draw to Stan Wawrinka.
Unless Dimitrov returns to form soon, he could also be at risk of not getting direct entry to Wimbledon as well, despite having been one set away from beating eventual champion Jannik Sinner last year before he was forced to retire.
Which players have spent the longest inside the top 100 on the ATP Tour?
Dimitrov’s streak of being in the top 100 was the second longest of active players on the ATP Tour, lasting 730 weeks.
The only active player to have spent more consecutive weeks in the top 100 is Novak Djokovic, who has been in this ranking since July 2005.
Now with Dimitrov’s streak coming to an end, Alexander Zverev is now going to become the active player with the second longest streak on the ATP Tour, being followed by Karen Khachanov and Daniil Medvedev.
| ATP players with longest streaks in the top 100 | Date they entered the top 100 | Number of consecutive weeks in the top 100 |
| Novak Djokovic | July 4, 2005 | 1082 weeks |
| Grigor Dimitrov | April 2, 2012 | 730 weeks |
| Alexander Zverev | July 27, 2015 | 557 weeks |
| Karen Khachanov | October 3, 2016 | 495 weeks |
| Daniil Medvedev | November 14, 2016 | 389 weeks |
Dimitrov will look to climb back up the rankings at his next tournament of the Madrid Open, where he was ranked high enough to get direct entry at the time of the cut-off.
However, the 34-year-old will have to play qualifying at the Italian Open, where Dimitrov is the 15th alternate.
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