Dominic Thiem 2020 - French Open with the greatest fun factor
After his final defeat against Daniil Medvedev , Dominic Thiem took stock of the tennis year 2020.
by Jens Huiber
last edit: Nov 23, 2020, 10:53 am
Sweden and Iceland should actually have been in terms of vacation, but under the circumstances Dominic Thiem has to reorient himself. Especially since it has not yet been determined when the Australian Open will be held in 2021. And when the players can travel down under. The memories of Melbourne are positive, the tennis year 2020 started quite normally, as Thiem emphasized again in the press conference after his final defeat against Daniil Medvedev in London.
First with the ATP Cup in Sydney, then with the first major of the season, in which Dominic Thiem had reached his third final in a Grand Slam tournament. For all those who nodded away briefly at the time: In the meantime there was a very limited phase of collaboration with Thomas Muster, which in Melbourne mutated into a side note again.
Thiem thinks Rublev is the top 5 man
So far, so normal. When Indian Wells was canceled in March, a phase of uncertainty began, after which Dominic Thiem suddenly found himself in the Bundesleistungszentrum Südstadt, in Patrick Mouratoglou's academy near Nice and in front of full seats at the Adria Tour in Belgrade (yes, actually , Thiem was also at the start , athletically even successful) playing tennis again.
Thiem's 7 in Kitzbühel was certainly fun and spread the word, the host lost there against Andrey Rublev in the final (against Rublev, who by the way is one of the top five players of the year). The sporting highlight followed, of course, in New York City, with winning the US Open.
No pressure against Ruud, Gaston and Schwartzman
But when was the fun factor greatest for Dominic Thiem in this bizarre, for many rather sad year 2020? "Probably at the French Open in the third and fourth round", Thiem noted after careful consideration in his final press conference. In Roland Garros, the now 27-year-old first played against Casper Ruud, then against Hugo Gaston, who tortured him with dropshots to the square. What Thiem did not bother, the encounter with Diego Schwartzman in the quarter-finals remained in his memory.
“I was still playing on the wave of success at the US Open, and I didn't put such incredible pressure on myself. There were people, there was a really great atmosphere, with all those stop balls on sand, that was really cool. Before that at the US Open and then in Vienna and here, I expected a lot from myself. ”He said he did not go to the matches before and after that as uninhibited as at the French Open.