A resurgent Dominic Thiem reveals the self-doubts he had, even started believing “Can’t win a set against good guys”
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Dominic Thiem
Austrian World No.113 Dominic Thiem is slowly becoming the player he was before the unfortunate wrist injury sustained during the Mallorca Championships back in 2021. He was able to reach the ATP-250 European Open semi-final last week after a nail-biting quarter-final win against Polish world No.11 Hubert Hurkacz after saving 3 match points. With that being said, it seems like after going through a slew of ups and down in his professional career, Thiem is finally making a comeback.
While discussing the rough phase of his life when it comes to professional tennis, Thiem talked about the low points he had during the comeback before the commencement of the ATP-500 Vienna open in front of his home crowd. He even addressed how he worked extremely hard after Paris and strategized accordingly.
He noted, “The French Open was the absolute low point, where I can understand all the critics. It was horrible how I played there. I had my doubts because before that there were a few months of full training. I saw in training that I’m far away and I can’t win a set against the good guys.”
Continuing his train of thought, he further added, “The long training block after Paris was important. That’s when it clicked, and I noticed that it feels better now, a bit like it used to. The first win on the tour in Bastad and then the first quarterfinals were extremely important. That’s when I saw that I can win against better players again. From then on it went in the right direction again most of the time.“
Dominic Thiem is gearing up for 2023
Dominic Thiem was constantly challenging the Big 3 and eventually won his first Grand Slam at the 2020 US Open. However, in a rather unfortunate turn of events, just when he was about to get the recognition he deserved after grinding himself for years, disaster happened in the form of a wrist injury during the Mallorca championships in 2021.
Thiem had to withdraw from 4 of the 6 grand slams that happened after the injury. Although he made a comeback for the clay season this year, he could not make any marks, much to the disappointment of his fans and viewers. Nevertheless, his Service motion and forehand style have visibly changed after the wrist injury.
The Grand slam tournaments he played this year ended in first-round losses in both the French Open and US open. Despite the poor run in grand slam matches, he was able to reach the finals of Rennes Challenger 2022 when he eventually lost in straight sets to French World No.106 Ugo Humbert.
Though he lost in the 2nd round in the Metz Open and Tel Aviv Open after that, he was able to reach the semi-finals of the Gijon Open and European Open last week where he lost to Russian World No.8 Andrey Rublev and American World No.36 Sebastian Korda respectively.
While the season has been a roller coaster ride for Thiem, the Austrian professional player is all set to scoop some of the major upcoming titles in 2023. Hope he builds the rhythm to compete with the top guys as he did against Hurkacz last week and will be back as a force to deal with in the 2023 season.
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Vipul Payattuparambil
(552 Articles Published)