Grigor Dimitrov’s career has been littered with disappointments at the Grand Slams and after retiring from his U.S Open quarter-final against Frances Tiafoe on Tuesday, the Bulgarian said the setbacks do not get any easier to deal with.

Playing much of his career in a period dominated by the ‘Big Three’ of Roger Federer, Rafa Nadal and Novak Djokovic, success has been hard to come by for Dimitrov and he has failed to get beyond the semi-final stage at any of the game’s biggest events.

Seeded ninth in New York, the 33-year-old was put through five gruelling sets by Andrey Rublev in the fourth round and that exertion appeared to take its toll on Tuesday when Dimitrov broke down with a leg injury at Arthur Ashe Stadium, where Federer was in the stands.

“It doesn’t get easier, I tell you that much,” said Dimitrov, who was trailing 6-3 6-7(5) 6-3 4-1 against the American when he called it quits.

“But when you’ve done certain things a certain way throughout your career, a lot of moments, outside of tennis, really humble you in a very different way.

“That’s why when I have something like that comes around, for sure I take it and I hurt with it, you have to. I don’t want to just, like, brush it off, like that’s fine.

“I put it aside, but also I have a lot of exciting things ahead of me. I can say, ‘OK, I’m going to get home, try to rest a little. I have an amazing exhibition coming around the corner to do with Novak. Heading to Asia to finish the year off’.”

Dimitrov won his first ATP title since 2017 at Brisbane in January and reached hardcourt finals in Marseille and Miami to spark hope that he could finally end his major drought.

He said he would take time to assess the past few weeks to see where he can improve and do things better.

“So all in all, these things are putting some sort of a positive moment for me and when you start focusing on these things, everything else fades away,” he added.