page_title: Grigor Dimitrov
section_title: 2012
hierarchical_section_title: Grigor Dimitrov / Professional career / 2012
caption_attribution_description: English: Grigor Dimitrov at the 2012 US Open
context_page_description: Grigor Dimitrov is a Bulgarian professional tennis player. His career-high ATP singles ranking is world No. 3, which he achieved in November 2017 after winning the ATP Finals.
  Dimitrov is the most successful Bulgarian male tennis player to date, both in terms of ranking reached —as of 2017 he is the only Bulgarian tennis player ever to be ranked inside the top ten ATP singles— and prize money won, being the only male Bulgarian player to reach US$1m and later $18m.
  Dimitrov is also the first Bulgarian male tennis player to win an ATP title in singles and reach a final in doubles as well as the only Bulgarian male player to reach the third round or better at a Grand Slam tournament. Dimitrov is also the first Bulgarian to qualify for, and later win, the ATP Finals. He has won eight ATP singles titles to date.
  Prior to his professional career, Dimitrov enjoyed a successful junior career, in which he held the world No. 1 ranking and won consecutive grand slam boys' singles titles at the 2008 Wimbledon Championships and the 2008 US Open— at the former he defeated future men's doubles No. 1 player Henri Kontinen in the final.
context_section_description: Dimitrov started his 2012 season by competing at the Hopman Cup alongside Tsvetana Pironkova. Their team was defeated by the Czech Republic 1–2, after they won a match in mixed doubles but lost their singles matches. Then, their team defeated Denmark 2–1. Against USA, Dimitrov trounced Mardy Fish in straight sets in his first win (although not official ATP win) against a Top 10 player. At the Australian Open Dimitrov defeated Jérémy Chardy to reach the second round but then he lost in five sets to Nicolás Almagro. Dimitrov competed in the SAP Open but lost in the first round to Kevin Anderson, despite winning the first set easily, lost the next two in tie-breaks.
  At the BNP Paribas Open Dimitrov defeated Ivan Dodig in the first round, but lost to David Ferrer in the second round. Dimitrov's next tournament was the Sony Ericsson Open, where he reached the fourth round after defeating Mikhail Kukushkin, Juan Ignacio Chela, and upsetting world No. 7, Tomáš Berdych, his first win over a top-ten player, before losing to Janko Tipsarević. Dimitrov entered the challenger event Strabag Prague Open as the fifth seeded player. In the first round he defeated Jan Hájek and then lost to Aljaž Bedene in the second. At the French Open, Dimitrov was a set and a break up against 17th seed Gasquet before suffering an injury, he went on to lose the set, momentum and eventually match.
  Dimitrov's next tournament was the Aegon Championships. He beat Bobby Reynolds, Gilles Müller and Nicolas Mahut and then reached his first ATP semifinal by beating the No. 9 seed, Kevin Anderson by coming back from a set down. Dimitrov became the first ever Bulgarian male tennis player to reach an ATP semifinal. In his first ATP semifinal Dimitrov lost to tenth seeded David Nalbandian in straight sets. This tournament helped him become #65 in the rankings.
  At the 2012 Wimbledon Championships, Dimitrov faced the No. 32 seed, Kevin Anderson in the first round. Dimitrov won in a very close four sets. In the second round, he faced the Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis, where Dimitrov retired due to an injury. His next tournament was Swedish Open. Seeded sixth, he eliminated Rogério Dutra da Silva, Frederico Gil, and third seed Albert Ramos all in straight sets to reach a second ATP semifinal in his career. In the semifinal, he lost to the top seed and eventual champion David Ferrer in straight sets. Dimitrov then competed in the Crédit Agricole Suisse Open Gstaad. He defeated sixth seed Julien Benneteau, Dustin Brown, and Łukasz Kubot. In his third career semifinal, he lost again – this time to Thomaz Bellucci in two tough tiebreaks. On the grass of Wimbledon, Dimitrov represented his country for the first time in the Olympics. In the first round, he defeated Pole Łukasz Kubot again in two tight sets, two weeks after he had beaten him in the Swiss Open quarterfinal. He fell in the second round to the 12th seed, Gilles Simon – his fourth loss against Simon (whom he has never beaten).
  On hard courts, Dimitrov has failed to qualify for Rogers Cup and Western & Southern Open. In both Master tournaments, he lost in the first round of the qualifying round to Marco Chiudinelli and Rajeev Ram respectively. Dimitrov suffered a first lost at the final slam of the year, the US Open to Benoît Paire in four sets. He ended his drought at the PTT Thailand Open, reaching the second round before losing to Richard Gasquet in three tight sets. He then qualified for the Japan Open, but fell to Juan Mónaco in straight sets.
  At the Masters event of Shanghai, he defeated Pablo Andújar before losing to world No. 2 Novak Djokovic. At the Swiss Indoors Basel Dimitrov reached the quarterfinals, defeating Viktor Troicki in straight sets and Julien Benneteau in three tie-break sets, before losing to Paul-Henri Mathieu in two tie-break sets. His next tournament was the BNP Paribas Masters, after receiving an entry from the qualifying draw. He beat Jürgen Melzer before his 2012 campaign ended at the hands of Juan Mónaco. Dimitrov ended 2012 ranked world No. 48 in singles.
caption: Dimitrov at the 2012 US Open
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