Quote of the Day: Grigor Dimitrov doesn't want you to 'open the door' to his past London escapades

Millennials around the world, stand up! Grigor Dimitrov is with you: Now at age 33, the Bulgarian says he a cozy night in instead of a wild night out.

OK, we might be paraphrasing: But closer to the end of his tennis career than the beginning, the former Top 10 player is stressing that he's doing all that he can these days to preserve his body and maximize his energy ... even if it means not enjoying the sights and sounds of the various locales he visits on the globe-trotting tennis tour as much as he once did.

Following a 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 win Friday over fellow 30-something Gael Monfils, Dimitrov was asked by a reporter what he likes to do at the grass-court Grand Slam in his time off. But the Bulgarian, who first came to prominence by winning the junior title at AW19 back in 2008, flipped the answer on its head when he said he hasn't gone out to enjoy London during the tournament in "five [or] six years."

"... Which is very unlike me," he added.

Read more: Grigor Dimitrov’s open heart is a driving force behind his career renaissance

Asked to elaborate on some of what he got up to in his younger days, Dimitrov played coy, and humorously requested that the past stay there.

"Oh, don't open that door," he said, laughing. "Yeah, next question, please!"

Q. Just wondered, when you are in London for Wimbledon, Queen's, what have you, are there things you like to do when not playing tennis, art galleries or...

GRIGOR DIMITROV: I used to. In the past five, six years I have not gone out of Wimbledon, which is very unlike me.

Yeah, I don't know. I think I just want to maximize my time off the court in terms of rehab and things that I can do better.

I think before I could keep up with a lot more things outside the court and make sure that I come back the next day and I feel like fully ready and have fresh legs, fresh mind. But in the same time now I cannot just walk all around London and come back and expect the next day to be fully at its best.

I think when you want to be the best, when you want to chase that higher end, you really need to maximize that in every corner you possibly can. I don't want to have any stone unturned. So in saying that, I do the maximum I can to rest, to do the rehab, to do exercise basically, and that's all the time on myself.

I feel great in terms of body and everything like that, but also, I have to realize that I'm not 22, 23 years old where they can do a bunch of things throughout the whole day, and then the next day it's as if nothing happened. I'm mindful of that.

However, when I get out there on the court, my game speaks for itself. So, yeah, I just want to get every edge I possibly can.

But whatever Dimitrov is doing, it's been working in his resurgent 2024. In March, he reached his third ATP Masters 1000 final in Miami, losing to Jannik Sinner, and completed the career set of Grand Slam quarterfinals with a run to the last eight in Paris. The run in Miami put him back in the Top 10 for the first time in 260 weeks, the third-longest gap in the Open Era.

Seeking to reach the Wimbledon quarterfinals for the first time since he played in the semifinals 10 years ago, the 33-year-old will have to wait another day to find out his opponent. He'll face either No. 5 seed Daniil Medvedev or German Jan-Lennard Struff, whose third-round match was suspended on No.2 Court due to rain with Medvedev up two sets to one.