Günter Bresnik for comparison Thiem and Zverev: "Now rate Dominic's playful quality higher"
Günter Bresnik also trusts one of the young players to win a Grand Slam title next year.
by Florian Goosmann
last edit: Dec 12, 2019, 02:11 pm
The 58-year-old does not believe that Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal will dominate again in the upcoming season as in the past season. "In 2020 one of the boys will surely win a major," Bresnik told KURIER .
Bresnik also includes his long-time protégé Dominic Thiem . "He has the tools to be able to play well on all surfaces. It is almost only played from the baseline. Dominic is sensationally trained and he is one of the best." Bresnik and Thiem had surprisingly split up in spring, since then ex-professional Nicolas Massu has been at the side of the Lichtenwörther. The Chilean had been the Touring Coach in Team Thiem the previous weeks.
Bresnik was surprised by the victory of Stefanos Tsitsipas in the ATP Finals. But Denis Shapovalov is also good for him. "He had good skills and trained with me for half a year. He has a bite and is also extremely good physically."
Tennis can become number 1 in Austria
In general, it is the case that tennis lives from the rivalries, and that will come again in the coming generation. "Two of the five or six candidates will emerge in the near future. Dominic can be one of them with his skills." Bresnik had already expressed his opinion about Alexander Zverev in the summer , two years ago he still saw Zverev as the future number 1. This no longer seems to be the case. "He was raised very early on and paid the price for it at the age of 22. I now rate Dominic's playful qualities higher. He is currently generating a lot of attention, tennis can become the number one sport in Austria in the next few years."
For Federer and Nadal, however, it will be tight. Federer had last seen this at the US Open, in the loss to Grigor Dimitrov. "It's a race against time for him. There's no need to talk about the fact that he has outstanding skills. But the body doesn't play along forever, even if it trains hard." The same applies to Rafael Nadal.
With the third in the league, the "only" 32-year-old Djokovic, Bresnik made an interesting observation. "At Novak Djokovic it is the case that he invests a lot of energy in the rivalry with Nadal and Federer, he mobilizes a lot of strength here. He likes the constant duels with one of the boys less."
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