Dominic Thiem and the aftermath of the Australian Open: "Hard to have a hard Grand Slam behind you"
Dominic Thiem returned to the ATP tour last week after his Australian Open final defeat. In Rio de Janeiro, the Austrian could not build on his performance, surprisingly eliminated in the quarter-finals. Probably also because the after-effects of the exhausting Grand Slam can still be felt.
by Michael Rothschädl
last edit: Feb 24, 2020, 03:44 pm
If you put Dominic Thiem, who in the final of the Australian Open is probably the best tennis player in the world, Novak Djokovic, on the brink of defeat with Dominic Thiem, who was completely right yesterday against the world rankings 128th, Gianluca Mager, drew the short end, compares, then one might think that there were at least several months in between. In fact, it was a little less than three weeks apart that the Austrian's two appearances.
Of course, the games took place on completely different surfaces and of course it is also presumptuous to compare a performance in the final of a Grand Slam with the performance in the quarterfinals of a moderately staffed ATP 500 event. But - with the playful aspect left out - it didn't look all right for the Austrian: starting with the musculoskeletal system, through the hardness of the basic strokes to the return game - everything seemed less convincing than it did in Melbourne. And at the latest after the more than half-hearted attempt to make a comeback after the game against Gianluca Mager had continued on the second set, the question arose in particular as to how fit the Austrian was.
No risk of injury
The all clear that there was no serious injury behind the poor performance, the Austrian gave immediately after his departure: "Basically everything is fine," said the Austrian, only to add: "But of course it is very hard, a strenuous grand Having slam behind you and the body coming down afterwards. " It was difficult to get back to the top level on a completely different surface on the other side of the world, said the 26-year-old after his quarter-final defeat. "It often happens that I get better and better over the course of a week, but unfortunately this time it wasn't."
Dominic Thiem already achieved the big goal of reaching third place in the world rankings. Not because he was able to earn the necessary points in Rio de Janeiro, but because Roger Federer will drop the points for his previous year's victory in Dubai next week. The joy of the new career high does not diminish this fact: "To be honest, I am not worried about that at the moment, because in a few weeks I will be number three anyway. I am sad because I lost this game" , Ubitennis.com quoted the Austrian.
Title defense project in Indian Wells
In the coming weeks, Dominic Thiem will now have time to give his body the necessary regeneration time. As in the previous year, Dominic Thiem wants to arrive in California ten days before the tournament starts, in order to Michael Reinprecht to work intensively on physical fitness. Because Indian Wells is also an important date for the Austrian in terms of world rankings, as he has to defend the full 1000 points from his previous triumph. "I will try to get used to the unique conditions there and do something similar to last year, which worked out amazingly well. I hope that I can play my best tennis there again."
From March 12th to 22nd, Dominic Thiem will serve at the first ATP Masters 1000 event. Like the Australian Open, this will also be played on hard court - almost all top players saved themselves the short-term change to clay court. Dominic Thiem, on the other hand, skipped the European hard court tour and was honored at the ATP 500 event. A move that seemed to work at first glance, the Austrian would have had no big chunks on the way to the title. As is known, it was not enough for the triumph. Given the upcoming change to hard court, it was certainly a tournament that should not be overestimated.