Grigor Dimitrov turned his Dimitrov injury return at Wimbledon into a third-round berth, beating Jakub Menšík in four sets and backing up the comeback that started with two emotional wins. A year after the torn pectoral muscle ended his match on Centre Court, he is still moving through the 2026 Wimbledon Championships.
Centre Court and Jannik Sinner
The injury came last year against Jannik Sinner, when Dimitrov led two sets to love before retiring on Centre Court. He was 35 then, as he is now, and the break in that match stopped what he later described as one of his best chances.
Dimitrov did not hide that frustration before the tournament. “I was sad,” he said in his pre-tournament news conference. He also said, “I knew that it could have been one of my best chances. I knew it. But in the end this is what happened.”
Wimbledon and the wild card
This year he entered Wimbledon as a wild card and handled the return with two wins before the latest one over the No. 15 seed. The scoreline against Menšík was 7-6, 4-6, 7-5, 6-3, and it sent him into the third round.
The path back has been long enough to matter on its own. Dimitrov fell out of the top 10 in 2018, then did not come particularly close again until 2024, after he began working with Jamie Delgado. He has never made a Grand Slam final, and the return to this stage gives him a live chance to keep pressing beyond the injury that ended his 2025 run.
Jamie Delgado and Monte Carlo
That rebuild has held up under pressure. The same player who watched Jannik Sinner lift the Wimbledon men's singles trophy six days after the injury is now back in the draw and through another round at the All England Club.
He has earned more than $31 million in prize money, plus millions more in endorsements and perks, but the value of this return is simpler: two wins, one four-seter over Menšík, and a place in the third round after a Centre Court injury that once looked like the end of the story.
