ATP Geneva: Dominic Thiem - One step forward, two back?
The wait for the first victory after the comeback on the ATP tour continues for Dominic Thiem after leaving Geneva. Next stop: Roland Garros.
by Jens Huiber
last edit: May 17, 2022, 07:39 am
First of all, a question: How can it be that someone who can play tennis as well as Marco Cecchinato, especially in the first set of the meeting with Dominic Thiem, has not been able to win a match on the ATP tour since last August (in Winston Salem against Tennys Sandgren was it)? Cecchinato cleaned the lines, played magical stops, dominated the match. Certainly also because Thiem approached the matter too passively. The two victories in qualifying probably also helped, but the Italian's performance was amazing, especially at the beginning.
Dominic Thiem's has, to a certain extent, followed the ones in Rome, Madrid, Estoril and Belgrade: Physically, the Austrian seems to be in very good shape, he mostly ran the very good dropshots from Cecchinato mentioned, scored here and there with the forehand, the Backhand wasn't the problem anyway. The efficiency rather. Dominic Thiem worked seven breakballs in Geneva, he was not able to use a single one. This may be due to the lack of match practice, even if Cecchinato was always there in the tricky moments. The fact that the tweener works like in the best days will be of little consolation to Dominic Thiem.
Thiem with advantages in best-of-five format?
Next week we are going to Paris. What speaks for the fact that in Roland Garros of all places it could work with the first match win after the comeback? Probably Dominic Thiem's fitness, which he can weigh even more in a best-of-five match. Of course, a lot will depend on the draw, but that also applies the other way around: Because none of the top seeded men will raise their hand when it comes to playing against the two-time finalist Thiem in the early, maybe even the first round.
Which also applies to a certain extent to another comebacker who has already triumphed at the Bois de Boulogne: An opening game against Stan Wawrinka is certainly not at the top of Djokovic's, Zverev's and Co.'s wish list. Even if the role of favorites in that case would be as clear as it is currently against Dominic Thiem. We will know on Thursday. Then it will be drawn in Paris.