Dominic Thiem: The plan for the coming months is in place
Dominic Thiem will work on his competitive form on the Arabian Peninsula in the coming weeks before heading to Australia for the start of the season. The Lower Austrian already has a clear plan in mind beyond the Australian Open.
by Michael Rothschädl
last edit: Dec 05, 2022, 02:40 pm
Dominic Thiem is a traveler in these hours, for the Austrian he is heading towards the World Cup this Monday. Only in the direction, however, because the former world number three does not travel to Qatar, rather Saudi Arabia is the goal of the 29-year-old. From December 8th to 10th, Thiem will take part in a top-class and well-paid exhibition fight - among others, Daniil Medvedev, Alexander Zverev and Stefanos Tsitsipas will be at the start.
In Riyadh, at the Diriyah Cup, Thiem should take the next step after almost exactly a month of intensive pre-season preparation: "The few percent that I lost after the season, in terms of fitness, endurance, strength - we made up for it," said Thiem. "Of course I still have some catching up to do in terms of matches. I have really good opponents in Saudi Arabia and Dubai. I want to play every match to the full so that I can catch up on the missing match practice before Australia." The draw for the exhibition event will take place on Wednesday.
Thiem in Dubai against Rune
The stay of the US Open winner from 2020 in Saudi Arabia does not last particularly long, "the next day I go to Dubai, where I train for a little over a week," said Thiem. The World Tennis League is also scheduled there, in the course of which Thiem will meet youngster Holger Rune (December 22nd). Afterwards there is also a mixed doubles on the side of the Estonian Anett Kontaveit on the program. Thiem is in the same team in Dubai as companion Alexander Zverev.
After Dubai, Thiem is before Australia, already on December 25th - after a short Christmas party in a small, family environment in Dubai - the Austrian is going to Adelaide, where the Lower Austrian wants to play the first tournament of the season. There it is also about the fine-tuning for the Australian Open, where Thiem still has to tremble for a place in the main draw. Depending on the performance in Adelaide, Thiem could also open again in the second week at the same place, otherwise it goes directly to Melbourne for preparation.
Thiem plans with Davis Cup
In Melbourne, Thiem finally wants to be "the old man" again: "Of course, certain things were still missing, even in the last tournaments of the year. I'm in the process of finally eliminating them in training. Even if everything is much better was, it wasn't perfect in training either," explained the Lower Austrian. In 2020, Thiem had reached the final at the Australian Open and was only inferior to serial winner Novak Djokovic.
Jürgen Melzer in particular will be happy about Thiem's plans after the Australian Open, because: Thiem would like to start in the Davis Cup duel with Croatia at the beginning of February. After that, the South American clay court tour with tournaments in Buenos Aires (February 13), Rio de Janeiro (February 20) and Santiago (February 27) is on the agenda. "The tournaments there are good for me and sand should always be good, although lately hard court, including hard court indoors, has been more and more good for me. From that point of view, I have almost no favorite surface, I have to say."