The sorry plight of "Baby Feds".

WARNING: This blog, that nobody will read I hasten to add, should be taken with 1/17 of a pinch of salt. Permission to guffaw at me.

Grigor Dimitrov.
For much of 2014 he had it all.
A Wimbledon semi-final, having knocked out defending champion Andy Murray in the previous round, and his highest ever ranking of eighth to boot.
Well over 100,000 twitter followers - the most important trinket in life...
Bulgarian sportsmen of the year, beating out actress Nina Dobrev, the patron saint Ivan Rilski and Jens Raitanen, a bionic calf man of the gods who may or may not be Bulgarian.

Bulgarian?

A right munter of a girlfriend in Maria Shara.. Shaaarraaa.,. Sharon? Basically a hotshot Russian tennis player that nobody has ever heard of despite being the top female earner in sport. Fact.
A top 50 listing in many of  the "sexiest men" rankings, with the likes of people who don't play tennis - who cares then? - such as Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt and that guy who made Two and a Half Men even less funny.

Fast forward to 2015 and Dimi still has most of those things. Shara-hoo-ha is still dating the Bulgarian, now a top 10er according to MTV on their "hot" list and now over 200,000 instagram and twitter followers; that is deadly!

One thing he is unfortunately burdened with is his coach, Roger Rasheed. Scratch that, I've just checked, they have now parted company. Is there much point in this post? Nah. Well night folks....

No, I really do need to practice rambling/waffling (served up with cream)/writing again.
I digress ever so slightly.

Since his ground breaking run to the last four at SW19 last year, Dimi has seen his ranking slide from ocmn (eighth in Bulgarian) to rshwadboop (fifteenth in gobbledigook).

From beating Grand Slam winners and challenging at slams to losing in the first round of the French Open, falling meekly at this year's Wimbledon, failing to defend any of his 2014 titles (Acapulco, Queens, Bucharest) and accumulating a sizeable 13 losses already.

This was a guy tipped for greatness, not helped however by that tag of "baby feds" ever since he won the Wimbledon Juniors title in 2008, aged 17.

Under Rasheed in the past 12 months, Dimi has become more defensive (i.e. standing further behind the baseline, taking the ball later and looking to use his retrieval skills to win), his serve and return stats are almost twice as bad (aces, first serve win %, break point conversion) and he's bereft of confidence.

How do you solve a problem like Maria? She's doing fine. Grand slam finals, top five in the world - Dimi however is no longer a precocious youngster.
As he admitted: "I'm 24, I don't consider myself that young anymore. Hey wait that rhymes! Life is on the up!" (He totes said that bit).
"Last year was an eye-opener for me, it showed me what I was capable of."

Once touted as the brightest of his generation - Nishikori, Raonic (both in the top eight) Janowicz, Tomic, Harrison - the vicenarian is at an interesting, and potentially troubling, cross roads in his career.

He undoubtedly has the talent. What he may be let down by is his palpable fascination with off-court activities, daunting labels, racket tinkering and also the footwork of Bambi on ice.

Rasheed and Hewitt

In tennis, the term "mental strength" is used as much as a disgusting handkerchief, but it is very important. Something the Bulgarian admits is lacking from his game this year. Rasheed is known for obsessing over the physical side of the game. It's what brought Lleyton Hewitt a great deal of his success, along with luxillon strings and a surface homogenisation.

This fitness Dimi has, has made him lose sight of his considerable talent.
To have huge success with a single-handed backhand is a mighty task. Just a quarter of the men's top 100 ply their trade with one; less than ten on the women's top 100.
It requires greater timing, it's less consistent and less reliable, especially in the current conditions of baseline dominated, fitness conducive tour events.
Dimi's backhand has become no more than a rallying shot and without the power of Stan or the genius of Feds, he is at a distinct disadvantage to his peers at the top.

Despite this, his game brought him so very close to a Wimbledon final and the game's top five. The famed "big four" range in age from 28, to 29 to 33 and won't be around for an eternity.

Getting rid of Rasheed was undoubtedly the right move. Maybe even parting ways with Shara-what's her-face (say what?!) and focusing on tennis could help as well.

Annacone and the Swiss shanker

Try and steal Magnus Norman off of Stan Wawrinka? A "celebrity" coach such as Ivan Lendl, Darren Cahill, Brad Gilbert, Larry Stefanki or Paul Annacone?
He has by no means fizzled out and he still has time on his side. But he has to change something or he could end up like a less successful Richard Gasquet - tennis fans don't want that.