Dominic Thiem and the tennis throne: "Of course I want to get further up"
World ranking third Dominic Thiem spoke in Berlin about his attack on the tennis throne. But everything depends on whether the ATP tour can be restarted as planned in early August. Thiem is skeptical.
by SID / tennisnet
last edit: Jul 16, 2020, 08:15 am
"Of course I want to get even higher. That is clear," said the 26-year-old. His big goal remains a Grand Slam victory, but when Corona finally returns to normal, he wants to work on the goal of "climbing further in the ranking". The Serb Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal (Spain) are still clearly ahead of him.
He was very close to the Grand Slam victory at the beginning of the year when he lost to the permanent champion Djokovic in five sets at the Australian Open in the final. "After that, I nibbled on it for a few days and weeks, went through the game night after night to find out what I could have done better," said the ambitious Thiem.
In the meantime, the clay court specialist has ticked off the defeat and is mentally preparing for the restart with the tournaments in the USA and the planned start of the US Open on August 31. "The whole thing is shaky," said Thiem, who remains skeptical about the rising corona numbers in the United States. In the end, the decision was up to the US government and the New York Mayor, said the tennis pro.
Here is the match to read in the live ticker.
Even his final opponent from Berlin, the Italian Matteo Berrettini did not really know how it would go on. "It's a tough question," said Berrettini when asked if the restart should come. The most important thing is health. "If it is not safe for me and my team, we will not go there. But there is still some time," said the world ranking night.
Thiem also has to come to terms with ignorance; doing nothing now largely determines his everyday life. In Berlin, the athletes were shielded from other people in a bubble. "You spend a lot of time in the hotel. I watched the matches of the tournament on TV, then ordered dinner and went to bed between 9.30pm and 10pm," said Thiem, describing a typical day in the Berlin bubble.