Grigor Dimitrov done rebelling against comparisons

9:16 AM ET

TORONTO — Following a gutsy day of comeback tennis, Grigor Dimitrov has a twinkle in his eyes. This was supposed to be the season the formerly eighth-ranked Bulgarian, who entered the Rogers Cup at No. 48, rediscovered his shot-making.

Instead, it had become the one in which he dumped a match in Istanbul by racket-smashing his way to a DQ — and otherwise twisted himself in knots.

But right now all that feels, if not far away, at least not of the moment. In the space of a few hours Monday, the 25-year-old came back from nearly getting ousted by a Japanese challenger in his first-round match at the Rogers Cup, giving a surprisingly spirited areal show with his doubles partner, Stan Wawrinka.

Grigor Dimitrov is ready to be his own person and start putting together promising results. Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images

Advancing past the first round of a non-Slam event shouldn’t have a revelatory feeling. But it does for Dimitrov, not least because of the way he did it — breaking down the suddenly bewildered Yuichi Sugita, who was three points away from winning in a second-set tiebreaker.

After a half hour’s rest, Dimitrov came back, moved to a side court and, with only a handful of people watching, made aerial shots like the one where he leaped up on the ad side at net, twisted his body to …

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