ATP Vienna: Straka believes in Thiem victory - contract with Massu extended
The manager of Dominic Thiem is in good spirits before the start in Vienna.
by Florian Goosmann
last edit: Oct 19, 2019, 11:35 am
Were the prospects for a home win by Dominic Thiem better at the tournament in Vienna? The Lichtenwörther comes with a tournament victory in Beijing in the back to the Austrian capital; All right, and with a quarter-final defeat in Shanghai. For Thiem is topped after the cancellation of Shanghai winner Daniil Medvedev at home.
The "best player at the moment," as Alexander Zverev recently christened, canceled his Moscow and Vienna starts due to exhaustion - having recently scored six finals in a row (and won three of them). A circumstance that surprised Thiem's manager Herwig Straka quite. "He has a strike result for the whole year now, so if you have 17 instead of 18 results for a year, that's a big deal," Straka is quoted in the Kleine Zeitung after an APA interview. Background is that after the US Open at least a 500 tournament is still counted. Medvedev is now missing for at least 52 weeks and can not be replaced by another event.
The refusal of the 23-year-old may have increased the chances of Thiem on a tournament victory, after all, Medvedev was last to beat only by Rafael Nadal. On the other hand: "I would have credited him with Medvedev as well, if Dominic plays a match well, he can really beat anyone, he has beaten everyone this year alone," says Straka.
Massu also in 2020 in Team Thiem
New in the past weeks in the team Thiem is that now father Wolfgang Thiem also increasingly travels, in addition to main coach Nicolas Massu. However, both have different experiences - and thus approaches. "Wolfgang is very detailed in terms of technology," said Straka with a view to the apprenticeship with Günter Bresnik. Nico is the one who has played, he knows how it is on the pitch, the combination of the two is ideal, they communicate a lot, even during the match, and Wolfgang will never be the head coach of Dominic . "
However, cooperation with Massu has already been extended. "Indefinitely, but surely for the next year." A super coach is acutely no topic. Here one must consider whether there were things that neither Massu nor Wolfgang Thiem could convey.