There was that time Andrey Rublev professed his affections for tourmate Grigor Dimitrov aloud during a Frankfurt hit-and-giggle.
“I think, if I was a girl, I would be completely in love with Grigor.”
“Roblo, I love the way you wear your heart on your sleeve, man,” No. 9 Dimitrov replied.
Or that time that, while filming a behind-the-scenes tour of the courts at the Monte-Carlo Masters, No. 6 Rublev confessed to the Bulgarian, “I almost fell in love with you.”
“The way he looks, everyone is in love with him, himself as well,” the baseliner later reiterated on the Tennis Channel set, sharing a laugh with host Prakash Amritraj. “He thinks everyone is in love with him. The way he looks, the way he plays tennis, he can hit a backhand and miss in the net, but it’s so beautiful. Amazing backhand, forehand, technique, amazing touch. Whether it’s a winner or a miss, it looks perfect, always.”
The bromance is real.
But few know that it all began right here in Queens, New York, back in 2017. After prevailing in their first career encounter, 7-5, 7-6(3), 6-3, in Round 2 of the US Open that year, Rublev wished his opponent luck in qualifying for the year-end ATP Finals.
Not only did Dimitrov qualify, he went on to win the title, still the biggest of his career.
“After that, little by little, we started to have a better connection,” Rublev said.
“When I was a junior, I liked him as a player,” Rublev said on Friday after a third-round 6-3, 7-5, 6-4 victory over Jiri Lehecka. “At that time, he was something different from the Big Three, Big Four. I liked to watch his matches.”
They have met another six times since, with Rublev holding a slight 4-3 edge in the head-to-heads. As fate would have it, these mutual admirers will face off once again at the 2024 US Open, this time in the Round of 16 on Sunday.
“Grigor is an unbelievable player, a great friend,” said Rublev, the sixth seed. “We’ve had many matches. We’ll see in the moment. It will be who is more ready.”
The 26-year-old sees their games as fairly similar.
“We both like to dictate with the forehand,” he said. “We have different backhands. He uses the slice, he likes to change the rhythm. I have a two-handed backhand. But our game styles are similar because he likes to play aggressive, he likes to dictate with the forehand, to be the one who leads the match.”
At 33, the ninth seed Dimitrov is in the midst of a career renaissance. Last year at this time, he was No. 19 in the ATP rankings, some half-a-dozen years removed from his last singles title. Fast forward and he’s returned to the Top 10, kicking off 2024 with an ATP 250 title in Brisbane.
“It was very important for me to get any title this year. It happened to be the first week,” said Dimitrov, who has reached the quarterfinals or better at all four majors. “That set a tone for me a little bit for the season. You just realize things throughout the season, with every match that you play, what the important things are. I’ve never shied away from work. It’s just putting myself in the best possible place to perform. It comes down to your own attitude, your own way of pushing yourself, believing in yourself. No one can do that for you.”
Rublev made the first of his 10 career Grand Slam quarterfinals at the 2017 US Open, the same year he first faced Dimitrov.
Dimitrov, meanwhile, has reached the semifinals here, something he accomplished in 2019 when, ranked No. 78, he rallied to defeat Roger Federer, 3-6, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2, the second-lowest-ranked US Open semifinalist since Jimmy Connors (No. 174) in 1991.
Only one can win. But either way it shakes out, that bromance is sure to continue.
