Dominic Thiem - break at the right time
Dominic Thiem will only start the clay court season later. The Austrian announced this decision on his homepage on Wednesday. It doesn't come as a surprise.
by Jens Huiber
last edit: Apr 01, 2021, 07:38 am
If anyone went through the big roller coaster of emotions on the ATP Tour 2021, it was Dominic Thiem: The Austrian played and won the atmospherically tightest match against Nick Kyrgios in Melbourne. Almost full ranks, great atmosphere, a tennis festival. A few hours after the end of the match, Melbourne was in lockdown, Thiem had to face Grigor Dimitrov in an empty Rod Laver Arena. Empty ranks, no mood, a tragedy.
Something like that can hit the psyche.
After his defeat against the Bulgarian, but especially during his interviews in Doha and Dubai, Thiem indicated how difficult the situation was for him: With the triumph at the US Open, he finally became the hunted, a victory against a Grand Slam Champion does well in the résumé of every tennis professional. In terms of Thiem, they have already achieved this this year: Matteo Berrettini , Dimitrov, Roberto Bautista Agut and Lloyd Harris. With the exception of Harris, however, players who can be dangerous for Thiem even in his better days. Or have already been able to.
Thiem traditionally with problems in Monte Carlo
It is not the first time that Dominic Thiem has started a season rather suboptimally, sooner or later the switch to sand brought relief. In 2021, "later" can already be noted, it could amount to entry into the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Madrid. Thiem made a commitment at Novak Djokovic's home tournament in Belgrade - but the Serb in particular knows how difficult it is to play your best tennis if you don't really feel yourself. And that's exactly what Thiem conveyed, especially in Dubai.
The life of tennis players may be privileged, but it is also a constant hopping from one bubble to the next. The players deal with this in different ways: Nick Kyrgios completely waives stakes, Benoit Paire steps in, although he doesn't feel like it (and lets everyone know about this). Thiem is too professional for the latter, he would never give up a match. But he too has to find his mojo again.
For Dominic Thiem, renouncing Monte Carlo will probably not have been too difficult. In the principality he always had to struggle with the circumstances, in the last edition in 2019 he lost to Dusan Lajovic. As if to confirm, the news came from France on Wednesday that the country is going into a tough lockdown. To what extent Monaco will join this is open. A tingling atmosphere that could bring Dominic Thiem's tennis spirits back to life prematurely is not to be expected.