Dominic Thiem: "A giant step in the right direction"
Dominic Thiem has the best season of his career in 2019. For the coming year, the Austrian has already made some plans shortly after the end of the ATP Finals in London.
by Nikolaus Fink
last edit: Nov 20, 2019, 08:23 am
With five tournament wins in Indian Wells, Barcelona, Kitzbühel, Beijing and Vienna, Dominic Thiem crowned Novak Djokovic as the record holder of the 2019 season. But it was not the five triumphs that left the lightwriter extremely satisfied with the past season ,
"In Indian Wells, the hard court is very slow, almost like sand, but in Vienna, Beijing or Shanghai, where I played really well, these are all tracks I've had a lot of trouble in. I've got a giant step in the right direction, "the Austrian commented on his performance explosion on faster hard courts.
He also proved that Thiem feels at home on more speedy courts at the ATP Finals in London. The 26-year-old defeated two legends of tennis in the English capital with Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer and only narrowly failed Stefanos Tsitsipas in the final - despite the fact that Thiem had to deal with a severe cold in the days of London.
Thiem happy with his body
His body had already thwarted him on the North American tour, but overall, Thiem is very satisfied with his health: "To be honest, I am really happy with my body." Djokovic was also chilled in Paris, here too a lot of players, the human being is sick now and then. "
"It's going well for the lifestyle I lead, anyway, we're on the edge of hard training and traveling all the time, and with a little bit better planning, I think I'm not good at big tournaments Failures will have more, "Thiem continued. This should already show positive results at the Australian Open next January.
Unlike in the years before, in which the world ranked fourth Down Under was repeatedly plagued by health problems, Thiem will graduate this year after a short break the preparation in Miami. The change from Tenerife to Florida should help the Lower Austrian to be at the beginning of the upcoming season at 100 percent.
"I know what I need to improve"
For this reason, Thiem will travel to Australia earlier in 2019. Already on the 20th of December we are heading to Sydney, where the ATP Cup will be on the agenda for Austria under the direction of Thomas Muster. Then there is the Australian Australian Open in Melbourne, the first really big highlight of the season.
Thiem himself feels ready after the ATP finals anyway for new heroic deeds: "I go with a very good feeling in the pre-season, because I know exactly what I have to train and what I need to improve. I hope that I take a step move forward and be fully ready when it starts in Australia. "