Green light for the ATP Finals - Dominic Thiem travels to London on Wednesday
Dominic Thiem will travel to London for the ATP Finals on Wednesday. The sole injury is no longer a problem, and a final highlight of the season should now be set in the British capital.
by Nikolaus Fink
last edit: Nov 09, 2020, 09:39 pm
Everything in the tennis circuit is waiting for the last big highlight of the year, the ATP Finals. With the exception of Roger Federer, all the stars on the Thames will be there. The field is led by Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, but Paris winner Daniil Medvedev, defending champion Stefanos Tsitsipas, 2018 champion Alexander Zverev and the two outsiders Andrey Rublev and Diego Schwartzman can also expect a chance of winning the tournament.
And then there is Dominic Thiem , who was finally able to close the gap to the Big Three this year and who was in the final in London last year. After the quarter-finals in Vienna, there was a small question mark behind the fitness of the Austrian, Thiem canceled his appearance at the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Paris due to a foot injury.
Terrorist attack: Thiem suffers with Massu
This is now healed, as the world number three announced on his website . "After losing in the quarter-finals at my home tournament in the Wiener Stadthalle, I cured my injury on the sole of my foot. Two or three days off the gas, then I started preparing for the season finale in London's O2 Arena," wrote Thiem.
The past few days have been anything but easy for him due to the terrorist attack in Vienna, especially since his coach Nicolas Massu was in the city center at the time of the attack . "My trainer Nicolas Massu experienced the terrible terror attack in Vienna at first hand, was eating near the rampage in a restaurant and locked up until 2:30 in the morning. A terror attack that shocked the whole world. Suddenly, life in Austria came to an end quiet. Very, very sad. "
Good memories of London
"Not exactly funny" is also the corona situation in Austria, said Thiem. The situation in Great Britain is not much better at the moment - therefore the ATP Finals will also be held behind closed doors. Nevertheless, the 27-year-old is already looking forward to the last tournament of the year: "The memories of the previous year are good. In the group games I beat Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, in the semifinals I defeated Alexander Zverev. Then in the final there was a 6-7 im third set against Stefanos Tsitispas. "
This year, Thiem naturally wants to follow up on the previous year's performance. Therefore, I am going to London with a "mini-team" on Wednesday. Before that, the Lichtenwörther will be voting for Austria's athlete of the year on Tuesday - and the chance is not bad that Thiem will travel to the British capital with a sense of achievement .