I'm seeing parallels with Nick and Dimitrov, another hugely talented and under-performing player. I know they are very different personalities, but both seem to lack a psychological ingredient necessary to excel. For Nick it seems to be humility and an excess of egotistical entitlement, for Grigor it seems to be a lack of fire and passion. Both meet in (presumably) not wanting to work hard enough to take their games up a notch.
But even their careers have similar trajectories, although Grigor a bit later than Nick. Grigor was slow to rise, with year-end rankings from 2008-14 of 493, 288, 106, 76, 48, 23, 11. Most elites see those last five years compounded into two or three; in other words, most elites go from around #100 (Grigor's 2010) to around #10 (Grigor's 2014) in half the time Grigor did. But he did seem to arrive in 2014, but then fell off and wandered aimlessly for a couple years, before rising again in late 2016 and seemingly breaking through (again) at the AO in that epic match vs. Rafa. But Grigor has disappointed since, and clearly hasn't turned a corner in terms of focus.
As for Nick, he gained national attention in 2014 when he beat Rafa in the 4th round of Wimbledon as a 19-year old. He followed up with a QF appearance at the 2015 AO, but hasn't been to a QF since and actually has worse results in all three Slams so far this year.
I think both will win big titles at some point, although think it very unlikely Grigor ever wins a Slam. A Masters...maybe. But he's already 26, so no longer young. Still, I could see Grigor hanging out in the #6-15 range for the next few years, and maybe sneaking in a Masters or two.
As for Nick, he is still just 22. But the question is, when is he going to realize he needs to work hard to be great? Maybe 2017 is the wake-up call he so clearly needs. If that's the case, he could be very, very dangerous in 2018. He has the game, I think, to war with Alex Zverev as the top player in the next few years. But I don't see a lot of love for tennis (didn't he say he preferred playing basketball?). I think Nick's window on becoming an all-time greaet (6+ Slam winner) is closed to only a crack, but so was Stan Wawrinka's chances of winning a Slam at age 28...and then he won three. As scoop says, Nick's possible futures run the gamut. He could be Mark Philippoussis, or he could be an even better version of Stan, blooming in his mid-20s and winning four or five Slams. He'll be fun to watch.
