ATP Hamburg: Dominic Thiem wants to hit the "Austrian" tournament
Dominic Thiem will be chasing the title at the ATP Tour 500 tournament in Hamburg on Monday. After a long break, the Austrian feels ready for new successes.
by Jens Huiber
last edit: Jul 20, 2019, 10:45 am
According to everything you know, Hamburg is still in northern Germany. The Rothenbaum stadium has not been transferred to the vicinity of Wiener Neustadt, nor has the Elbe recently flowed through Salzburg. Nevertheless, after the successful years under Michael Stich, the traditional ATP Tour 500 tournament has been given an Austrian touch since this year. And also an Austrian number one: Dominic Thiem will jump back into the tournament circus from Monday, with strong competition.
On Wednesday Thiem was still a guest at the Vienna Film Museum, the evaluation of the documentary "The Thiem Spirit" (to be seen on ServusTV on July 29) was generally extremely positive. But now Thiem has already gone to the Hanseatic city, where he will face strong competition. “In addition to me, Alexander Zverev and Fabio Fognini are two other top ten players at the start in Hamburg. This is only bad for me because of the competition. But it's great for the audience, ”said Thiem in an interview with the Austrian courier .
Thiem last quarter in Hamburg in the quarterfinals
"In addition, it has been an Austrian tournament somehow this year because of the organizer Peter-Michael Reichel," continues Thiem. After that, it actually goes to home regions, call Kitzbühel and the Generali Open. The pressure there is of course even greater, and Thiem will also be in first place in the city at the foot of the Hahnenkamm.
With Hamburg, the 25-year-old has not yet got very warm in terms of sport: last year Thiem was unable to get clear leads in tiebreaks in the quarter-finals against Nicolas Jarry twice, before that Lower Austria had defeated John Millman and Corentin Moutet.
In 2017, Thiem skipped the swing of the clay court, tried his hand at an American hard court in Washington at an early age - a tournament with which the current number four in the world did not get warm despite the heat there. In 2014 it was enough for a place in the third round for Thiem, Leonardo Mayer proved too strong there.
Training with Massu
Five years later, the conditions are completely different. Dominic Thiem is well on the way to qualifying again for the ATP final in London. During the past few days, he had initially trained with father Wolfgang and finally with Nicolas Massu. By the way, he is also very familiar with Austrian tournaments: in 2004 the Chilean won one of his six career titles in Kitzbühel.