Generali Open Kitzbühel: Dominic Thiem - who fights with his pants
Dominic Thiem has had a sporty run at the Generali Open in Kitzbühel until now. And the Austrian number one knows how to deal with small, fashionable ailments.
by Jens Huiber
last edit: Aug 02, 2019, 08:06 am
By Jens Huiber from Kitzbühel
It was already clear to all tennis fans in 1992 that the circumstances that brought Pete Sampras to Kitzbühel had to be special. The fact that buddy Jim Courier had also traveled with him had a simple, though important, reason from the US perspective: the Summer Olympics in Barcelona. Sampras and Courier wanted to prepare for sand, then go for gold. That went colossally wrong, after all Pistol Pete won the title in Kitzbühel, while buddy Jim was reportedly able to prove his willingness to play at the local casino.
To meet Dominic Thiem there should be classified as a bigger surprise. And the Austrian will also be absent at the Olympia 2020 in Tokyo, the goal is Paris 2024, and playing in Kitzbühel is not excluded. When it comes to Kitzbühel victories, Thiem wants to catch up with Pete Sampras this year, the conditions for this are not bad. Lorenzo Sonego and then either Casper Ruud or Albert Ramos-Vinolas could still become party crashers, each of whom at least 5,600 people who got tickets for the two final days would take note of this with displeasure.
Thiem self-critical after beating Andujar
The local, tournament and general favorite was extremely self-critical after winning the quarter-final against Pablo Andujar. The mother of the euphoria porcelain box is also careful. That at least all the spectators in the stands had the impression that Thiem would sooner or later push Pablo Andujar off the pitch may not have been in agreement with the assessment of the only relevant person in the stadium. But in the end there was a sure 7: 6 (4), 6: 4 success.
And the fact that Dominic Thiem had balls thrown for each serve, once again, did not trust his pants. Which brings us back a bit to Pete Sampras, who in the late stages of his career also refrained from stowing balls in his work pants, for whatever reason. Dominic Thiem has now given at least three reasons for this matter: At the US Open, Thiem once had to play against John Millman in such humid conditions that the pants stuck to his thighs, soaked through. New balls, please.
With luck, Sampras fends off the match ball
Last year at the French Open, Thiem lamented a fashionable misconstruction that the pockets of his pants were simply too small to accommodate a tennis ball. In Kitzbühel, variant three, the bags would give the balls plenty of legroom. So much so that they see the light of the tennis world under the trousers. What Dominic Thiem regards as optically rather modest.
Good for those who not only have such problems, but also know how to solve them pragmatically. Thiem has not yet had to deal with the problem of Lorenzo Sonego on the tennis court, the Italian has so far proved to be Houdini, in rounds one and two, a total of nine match balls fended off. Pete Sampras did not want to go that far in 1992: After he also jumped off the peg in his opening match of a defeat (the forgotten Spaniard German Lopez had a match ball against Sampras in the tiebreak of the third set - the net helped the favorite), he pulled the Rest of the tournament confidently.