ATP: Dominic Thiem hopes for a 2017 Da Capo in Rio
Dominic Thiem starts next week at the ATP 500 tournament in Rio de Janeiro, which he won once in 2017. In the event of a tournament win, Thiem could climb to third place in the ATP world rankings.
by Robin Huiber
last edit: Feb 14, 2020, 12:58 pm
With mostly good memories, Dominic Thiem left for the Brazilian metropolis last Thursday. The Austrian returns to the place of his triumph in 2017, at that time he took the trophy without giving a single sentence. Thiem is number one in the ATP Tour 500 tournament in Rio de Janeiro, so he hits his favorite surface, the red ash, again. Last year, however, the first appearance against the eventual winner Laslo Djere was over.
The appearance in Rio will be Thiem's first tournament on clay since winning the Generali Open in Kitzbühel in August 2019. With his strong finish last year (victory at the ATP Tour 500 event in Beijing and at the home tournament in Vienna, which belongs to the same category) and participation in the finals at the ATP Finals and the Australian Open, the 26-year-old showed that he is by no means just a clay court specialist and can also be counted on on hard court.
Successful in 2017 against Carreno Busta
During the past few days in Vienna, Thiem has mainly worked on his fitness under the regime of Duglas Cordero. He will also accompany him to Rio de Janeiro, where Nicolas Massu joins the Thiem team. Dominic Thiem decided against the originally planned start in Buenos Aires after the efforts of Melbourne, in Rio the first tournament success of this year is aimed at from Monday. In 2019, five tournament victories had finally been posted. In 2017 he did the trick in Rio when he beat Pablo Carreno Busta in two sets in the final.
The competition also seems feasible this year: the field of challengers is led by Thiem's buddy Diego Schwartzman, also Guido Pella, Borna Coric and Cordoba champion Cristian Garin want to have a say in the tournament victory. Should the favorite also prevail, Dominic Thiem will be rewarded with an additional reward: a new career high in the ATP world rankings. He would overtake Roger Federer.
Here are the winners of the recent ATP Tour 500 tournament in Rio de Janeiro:
| year | winner | Final opponents | Result |
| 2019 | Laslo Djere | Félix Auger-Aliassime | 6: 3, 7: 5 |
| 2018 | Diego Schwartzman | Fernando Verdasco | 6: 2, 6: 3 |
| 2017 | Dominic Thiem | Pablo Carreno Busta | 7: 5, 6: 4 |
| 2016 | Pablo Cuevas | Guido Pella | 6: 4, 6: 7 (5), 6: 4 |
| 2015 | David Ferrer | Fabio Fognini | 6: 2, 6: 3 |
| 2014 | Rafael Nadal | Alexandr Dolgopolov | 6: 3, 7: 6 (3) |