Years ago, one of the legendary Bulgarian tennis players Bozhidar Pampulov said that sometimes you can over-leap yourself, but you can never over-leap the level of Bulgarian tennis. Back then, Luben Genov and the Pampulov Brothers knocked out Belgium and its renowned tennis players Hombergen and Mignot and qualified for the third round of Davis Cup Europe Zone. However, things have changed significantly over the past four decades. Some top players such as the Maleeva sisters, Milen Velev and Orlin Stanoychev appeared on the sports stage. Currently Tsvetana Pironkova and Grigor Dimitrov are Bulgaria’s tennis stars. This means a lot to a small country like Bulgaria.

Last weekend Bulgaria’s Davis team defeated 4:1 Greece in Athens in a play-off which had to determine which team would stay in Group 2 of the Europe/ Africa Zone of Davis Cup. The outcome was clear, as no one in Greece dared thinking that Greek tennis players could win against….Grigor Dimitrov. Bulgaria took a 3:0 lead after the second day of the competition and the outcome was predetermined. Grigor did not have to play in the last two matches and the coaches decided to let young Bulgarian debutant Dinko Halachev gain experience. Unfortunately, Halachev lost to Alexandros Jakupovic who is the fourth-best Greek tennis player. The good news is that Bulgaria’s second best athlete Dimitar Kutrovski won his two matches at single and was a wonderful partner of Grigor Dimitrov at doubles, which gave the overall victory to Bulgaria. Thus, this country remained in Group 2 of the Europe/Africa Zone. However, Bulgaria failed to climb in Group 1 which means that Grigor alone is not enough to help Bulgaria advance forward. The latter was proved in other matches Bulgaria played in Davis Cup, such as against Finland for example. The gap between Dimitrov and the other Bulgarian tennis players is huge (300 positions in the ATP rankings). Of course, these boys are not to blame that they do not have the talents of Grigor Dimitrov. They perform well on tournaments which correspond to their level, register progress and are the ones who determine the level of the Bulgarian tennis. Grigor Dimitrov has lifted the bar too high. Currently we can not use the Greek tennis team to judge on the level of the Bulgarian tennis, because they failed to keep their place in Group 2 and will play in the lower group as of next year. There are a dozen of 14 and 15 year-old- Bulgarian teenagers who could progress in the nearest future and compete with Grigor Dimitrov. The same thing refers to the girls who place after Pironkova in the rankings. Things always happen this way, when “white swallows” appear in this sport. We only have to wait now. It takes time.

English version: Kostadin Atanasov