By Chris Oddo | Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Grigor Dimitrov—the wildly talented Bulgarian who is the youngest man in the ATP’s top 20 and one of the most entertaining showmen in tennis today—has made great strides with his fitness-oriented coach Roger Rasheed at the helm, but John McEnroe and Chris Evert believe that the 23-year-old is also benefitting from being in a relationship with one of the most professional, mentally tough players in tennis: Maria Sharapova.

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Typically relationships between high-profile stars are viewed as distractions, fleeting dalliances that frequently end in heartbreak and that create too many emotional peaks and valleys, but people aren’t seeing Dimitrov’s budding romance with Sharapova that way.

“I like a lot about him,” McEnroe said of Dimitrov during an ESPN conference to promote the network’s Wimbledon coverage. “What I didn't like about him was it didn't seem he was dedicated enough compared to what the other top guys were doing. Being around Sharapova I bet has helped him, maybe for obvious reasons, because he's happier. But the obvious ones were because she's so dedicated. I mean, I call her the Nadal of the women's tour. She plays every point like it's her last point. That has to have rubbed off on him.”

Evert agrees. “The more I watch this game, I more I realize it's getting to be so much about the team,” she said. “It's getting to be so much about the influences that these players have. They all have so much ability, natural ability. When you look at Andy Murray with Lendl, that proves my point. When I look at Dimitrov, he has Rasheed. He's got great credentials. Like John said, he's into the fitness part of it. He's got Maria as a girlfriend. Like John says, that professionalism, that discipline has to be rubbing off. She's probably telling him things, too, giving him some advice. I just think at the end of the day it really gives you a big edge if you have a great team around you.”

The 27-year-old Russian can definitely tell Dimitrov a thing or two about managing himself physically and emotionally during a grueling two-week Grand Slam event. Sharapova has amassed five Grand Slam titles and reached another four finals in her illustrious career. Dimitrov, who has yet to reach beyond the quarterfinals at a major, has been pegged by experts as a future star of the game, but McEnroe concedes that it will be tough for Dimitrov to break through in a sport still ruled by four of the best players to have come  long in a great while.

“He's got a lot to prove,” McEnroe said. “He has a lot of upside. Everyone has known that for a long time. It takes longer to break through. These guys are incredible. You're probably talking about the two greatest players that ever played, Nadal, Federer. Djokovic is going up the all-time great rankings. Murray has gotten himself better and better. It's extremely difficult to break into that.”