London is a city of historic bridges and the site of career peaks and valleys for Grigor Dimitrov.

In the space of eight months, Dimitrov has delivered a career pinnacle—roaring through the field undefeated to win the Nitto ATP Finals champions in London—and lowlight squandering a set and a break lead crashing out of the Wimbledon first-round to Stan Wawrinka.

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The sixth-ranked Dimitrov, who had beaten Wawrinka four times in a row before his opening-round exit, fell to 19-13 on the season without a title after capturing four titles and finishing 2017 with a career-high ranking of No. 3. 

The 27-year-old Bulgarian believes he may be paying a physical price and mentral grind for playing deep into November at the O2 Arena last fall. 

"Maybe this is what the body can take right now," Dimitrov said. "I think it's very tough when you reach a certain level and you want to go forward, but there's the last, like, two, three percent are the toughest ones. Each year you're growing, growing. You're 3. What is the next step? Wow, I can be No. 1."

Dimitrov said body and mind have taken a pounding during his 2017 career year. 

"Of course, there's an accumulation of a lot of matches, beating up on the body, especially on the mental side," Dimitrov said. "I mean, considering how many matches I had to fight through and come back from a set down on many occasions. Yeah, I mean, part of it could, to be honest.

"But in order to be the best, that's what you need to be doing every single year. I mean, I don't want to look for excuses for anything right now. As I said, it's a bumpy road, simple as that. For sure I'm not happy to lose first round in Wimbledon. I don't remember when was the last time that happened to me. Yeah, it's still a bit of a shock to me."

What's next for Dimitrov? Sleep.

"For me always going home is the best thing," Dimitrov said. "Sleep in your own bed, wake up, go for a walk, whatever you want. For me there's not one formula that is going to work, I'm going to go do this now, do that. No, I think I'll let the sink a little bit.

"Obviously, I can't really think straight right now just because I'm shocked in myself, frustrated, pissed, anything you can possibly think. I need to kind of calm myself down a little bit and start thinking rational and make the next step."

Photo credit: Ashley Western/CameraSport