"How often you say I played against the best players and have beaten them all?" - Grigor Dimitrov on playing in the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic-Murray era

A major part of Grigor Dimitrov’s career coincided with that of the ‘Big 4’ — Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic — but he cherishes the experience of playing in such a competitive landscape.

During his media interaction after making the final at the Miami Open, Dimitrov was asked if he considered himself unlucky to have been born in an era anchored by some of the sport’s greats.

In response, the Bulgarian said he rather considered himself to be 'very lucky' to have played against and beaten the best over the course of his career — adding that he cherished the journey.

"Totally the opposite, actually. Totally the opposite," Grigor Dimitrov said. "Very lucky. How often you say I played in an era against the best players and you have beaten them all?"

"It's great. I'm sorry, but I can live with that. You know, all that, the titles and all this, yeah, it's great. But the journey, the ride, it was, for me personally, not having these guys around, it's a little sad," he added.

Dimitrov joked that he would rather not play against the ‘Big 4’ too often but acknowledged that playing so many big matches against them helped shape his mental toughness.

"I don't want to play them, don't get me wrong (smiling) at the moment, but it's kind of sad," the Bulgarian said. "I love watching them play. I love competing against them, and you can always learn something."

"I think throughout the years I have had so many quarterfinal matches and third-, fourth-round matches where I had to play against them. But that also maybe shaped me to have that mental toughness and to do certain things different at that point in my career, like them," he added.

"You can certainly learn a lot from each one" - Grigor Dimitrov on Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Murray

Novak Djokovic and Grigor Dimitrov

Grigor Dimitrov heaped further praise on the ‘Big 4’, saying that one can learn something from Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic.

The Bulgarian went on to dub them 'pioneers', adding that having players with such diversity at the top of the game did wonders for the sport.

"You can certainly learn a lot from each one, very different," Grigor Dimitrov said. "I think each one had a very different way of doing things, but each one of them had amazing qualities."

"I think in a way they are the pioneers of nowadays tennis for us. I don't know. I think overall, to have players like that with such a diversity that all of them had, Novak is still playing and Andy, as well, but to really see that is I think going to be a little bit more rare," he added.

Dimitrov will take on Jannik Sinner in the Miami Open final. He will also return to the top-10 of the world rankings irrespective of that result.