Grigor Dimitrov is attempting to come back to the ATP Tour after injury prevented him from competing for most of the second half of the 2025 season.
Dimitrov suffered a heartbreaking injury at Wimbledon, having led eventual champion Jannik Sinner before being forced to retire after tearing his right pectoral muscle.
This forced the Bulgarian to miss the US Open, with Dimitrov returning to tennis at the Paris Masters last year.
Despite returning to action with a win, Dimitrov withdrew from his second round match in Paris and he has now provided an update ahead of the 2026 season.
Grigor Dimitrov explains how he is feeling ahead of the 2026 season
There have been some significant changes during the off-season for Dimitrov, who has switched coaches after parting ways with Daniel Vallverdu.
Dimitrov is trying this new coaching team out at the Brisbane International, where he is a two-time former champion, and was asked about his physical situation in his pre-tournament press conference.
This is where Dimitrov explained that he played at the Paris Masters to test his fitness, but suggested that he is now feeling back to his best.
“I mean, again, I feel good being able to compete again,” said Dimitrov. “I think it was my primary goal. I never wanted to go and play a tournament, knowing that I’m not going to be able to finish a tournament. There has been a lot of, you know, heartaches in a way, like I think in the past year and a half, two, retiring from tournaments and quite a few slams, also.
“Yeah, I was really focusing to make sure that I come back at the beginning of the year. I think the process of the recovery also took its time. I didn’t want to rush. Even though I played in Paris, it was just more of to see where my arm was at, what I needed to do more.
“I think also physically I was not up to speed. So there was just a lot of moving parts. But it was a great way for me to, yeah, to understand myself, to understand where my body is at I think physically and mentally. As we all know, those are the most important components in our game.
“But yeah, now again, you know, like, I’m being able to put myself in a place where I can, you know, compete to a point where I don’t have to be thinking much about any of that, and I think that gives me a great amount of freedom.”
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Grigor Dimitrov reveals what he has gained from being away from the ATP Tour
While it has been a difficult period for Dimitrov, who has retired from matches at his last four Grand Slam tournaments, it has not been all negative.
After being asked if there were any silver linings from his forced break away from the ATP Tour, Dimitrov responded by saying there were ‘too many’ and revealed what he realized in his time away from the sport.
“Oh, yeah. I almost feel like too many. It was a good time,” answered the former world number three. “I mean, I got the chance to be home. Got the chance to travel but not for tennis. I got a chance to go on four holidays.
“So overall, I was really able to, like, kind of distance myself from the sport. It also made me realize things that I like and things that I didn’t realize I liked or I didn’t like. So it was a very, yeah, very, like, sort of complete cycle of things that I did.
“Eventually, I had also so much work to do. I was trying to schedule a new team, I was trying to add to more, you know, more people, trying to find a different way to practice. I still had, you know, my hands full, but yeah, I really had to be patient.
“I think that was one of the — I mean, I have always been very patient as a person, but this time I had to be more. It was a very, in a way, different approach towards things that I have ever done.”
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Dimitrov will make his return to the ATP Tour in Brisbane, where he will play former top 10 player Pablo Carreno Busta in the first round.
This will be an eighth meeting between Dimitrov and Carreno Busta, with the former leading the head-to-head 4-3.
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