Dominic Thiem - A spring full of possibilities?
Dominic Thiem has no points to defend at the beginning of the year. The question is how many chances the Austrian gets to collect new ones.
by Jens Huiber
last edit: Dec 03, 2022, 08:37 am
561. That may be something like the number of the year 2022 for Austrian tennis fans. Dominic Thiem collected just as many points after his comeback in Marbella on the ATP tour. That wasn't quite enough for a place among the top 100 players in the world, but under certain circumstances it was at least eligible for direct starting in the main draw of the Australian Open 2023.
Now, looking at the ranking breakdown of the 2020 US Open champion, one could say: Dominic Thiem has a spring full of opportunities ahead of him. Which is not wrong per se. The first points to defend are those from Rome: exactly 10. In words: ten. So Thiem could become a hunter-gatherer, first in Australia, then maybe during the South American clay-court swing, finally in Indian Wells and Miami before it starts on European clay.
Thiem and the Davis Cup
The small problem: As number 106 in the ATP world rankings, places in the tableaus are not guaranteed. Maybe Thiem will get a protected ranking from the ATP after something went wrong when calculating the free entries in the comeback year. Here and there Thiem can certainly speculate on a wildcard.
But a good start to the season is urgently needed. Basically, the entry list is always closed six weeks before the start of a tournament, so it's advisable to get back into solid double digits as soon as possible. By the way, who could also suffer from this requirement: the Austrian Tennis Association (ÖTV). Because when chasing counters, it cannot be ruled out that Dominic Thiem will not take part in the Davis Cup match in Croatia at the beginning of February. The persuasive skills of team boss Jürgen Melzer are required.
In any case, the pressure of recent years has shifted for Thiem: until the injury break, it was always about maintaining an extremely high standard. The task now is to achieve this standard again as quickly as possible.