Dennis Novak reveals that he and Dominic Thiem are quite fond of Mario Kart

Dennis Novak reveals that he and Dominic Thiem are quite fond of Mario Kart
Dominic Thiem

Tennis players are currently quarantined in Australia ahead of the Aussie summer leg. Players are coming up with different ways to cope up indoors. This quarantine has hence brought out the gamer in several tennis stars, including Dominic Thiem. His close friend and team-mate Dennis Novak recently revealed that he and Thiem are quite fond of Mario Kart – a video game that they have been playing regularly during their isolation period in Adelaide, Australia.

Countryman Dennis Novak is one of Dominic Thiem’s closest friends on tour. They often spend a lot of time together back home in Austria and during events around the world. Novak is also Thiem’s training partner in Adelaide. He recently broke into the top 100 of the ATP rankings and is currently ranked No. 99 in the world.

Dennis Novak revealed the characters that he and Thiem like to pick when playing Mario Kart – currently the only game that they play on the popular console Nintendo Switch.

“We (Dominic Thiem and Dennis Novak) play a lot of Mario Kart on Nintendo Switch. That’s at the moment the only thing we play (on Nintendo Switch). I play with Baby Bowser and he takes Toad.”, he said in a recent chat with atptour.com.

“Dominic (is the person I’m most in touch with),” Dennis Novak added. “(We keep in touch by) texting, playing games online against each other.”

Dennis Novak loves playing video games with Dominic Thiem and his brother Moritz

Dennis Novak

Ahead of the quarantine, Dennis Novak has also carried his PlayStation with him to Australia, on which he plays a variety of games with Dominic Thiem’s younger brother Moritz.

“I also have a PlayStation with me,” Novak said. “I play with his brother (Moritz Thiem). We play Formula 1 and we have a few more games.”

The players quarantining in Australia do not have many options in terms of daily activities at their disposal. Most of them are involved in gaming, watching shows and movies, reading and doing in-room workouts. Dennis Novak is no different, as he mentioned having started a couple of new Netflix shows in addition to reading a few books about COVID-19.

“I just started a new show on Netflix, Shooter,” Novak said. “I’m just really into it. I cannot stop. Also a French one, Lupin. But there is only one season out, so it’s only five or six episodes. For Shooter there are a lot more. I (recently) read two books about Covid, which were really interesting.”

Also read: American Frances Tiafoe feels the pandemic was the ‘best thing’ to have happened in his career