Baby anything is a hard thing to live up to.  Baby Jordan?  Remember him?  Harold Miner.  Yeah, not much of a career.  Certainly not even close to Baby Jordan.  You could put 100 players between Harold Miner and Michael Jordan and that wouldn’t scratch the surface of how far apart these two players were.

Grigor Dimitrov had been tagged with this title some years ago, had worked with Federer’s ex-coach, had been told that he was further along than Federer at a ripe young age, but many felt those were plaudits that Dimitrov didn’t deserve and hadn’t earned.  He’d be another pretty face with a pretty forehand struggling in the 60s and 70s.

Only it turns out that this Bulgarian wasn’t ready to give up the rest of his career.  For a guy whose strokes resembles the great Swiss (but not his tactics), he wants the kind of success Federer has.  Maybe he’ll never get there, after all, who can expect to play at the greatest heights of the game, but maybe he’ll get close.  When there’s only a handful of teenagers in the top 300, and the average age of the tour gets older and older, Dimitrov may be the first to really break through.

Of course, at the very top of this heap is Milos Raonic.  That’s what a huge serve and big forehand will buy you, but Raonic is not particularly speedy nor particularly consistent except on his serve.  One problem with a big serve is that you don’t need to develop the rest of your game.

Dimitrov was starting to make progress last year where he played well in clay events, finally showing he could reach a semifinal or two.  But 2013 was really the breakthrough year for the young Bulgarian.  He reached the finals of Brisbane losing to Andy Murray.  He would lose early the next four tournaments in either the first or second round, perhaps a result of rumors dating Maria Sharapova, the kind of publicity Dimitrov might not have been ready for.

In Rotterdam, he would beat Tomic, Davydenko, and Baghdatis before losing to eventual winner, Juan Martin del Potro in the final.

In Indian Wells, he’d lose to Djokovic, then in Miami, to Murray.  At least, these losses (and del Potro) were losses to top ten players.

In Monte Carlo, he lost to Nadal, but pushed him to 3 sets.  In Barcelona, he lost to Tommy Robredo.

At Madrid, Dimitrov got past Javier Marti, a Spaniard.  But to beat Djokovic is his first truly big win.  The only top ten player he’d ever beaten was Tomas Berdych, who he had beaten twice.  His run in Monte Carlo included a victory over Tipsarevic and while Tipsarevic keeps playing through injury, a top ten win is a top ten win, but pushing Rafa to three sets had to be positive.

The first set was close, and then when it went to tiebreak, Djokovic seemed like he would win, as he kept ahead, but Dimitrov kept within fighting distance, and when he finally won the tiebreak, he knew that he just needed one more set.

Dimitrov broke in the second set, but Djokovic would keep it close by breaking back. Late in the second set, Dimitrov looked like he was cramping, and Djokovic himself, seemed to roll his ankle.  However, both were able to play, with Djokovic winning the tiebreak.  Even so, Dimitrov was not discouraged and opened the second set with a break, a break he was able to hold to the end, winning 6-3.  And so Djokovic is out early, but he was kinda out early last year, so the point loss shouldn’t be so great.

The other top seeds played well enough to win.  Federer was shaky, but still had a fairly straightforward win over Stepanek, 63 63.  Murray was pushed to two tiebreaks.  The first tiebreak went deep, 13-11.  The second was a bit more assertive, 7-3.

Verdasco struggled to beat Raonic on faster surfaces and wanted to play him on clay.  The match was still close, but the Spaniard won 76 in the third set.

Haas and Robredo, who had recent victories, won easily over Seppi and Baghdatis today.  Tipsarevic continues to struggle and lost to former top ten, Juan Monaco.