Günter Bresnik on Dominic Thiem: "Fun in tennis found again"
Günter Bresnik on the health status of his protégé and working with touring coach Nicolas Massu.
by Florian Goosmann
last edit:
Mar 08, 2019, 03:20 pm
Dominic Thiem has started the 2019 tennis year in trouble, his comeback in South America ended in Buenos Aires in the semifinals and in Rio de Janeiro at the start. Now Indian Wells, where Thiem had to give up in round three last year.
Thiem has been training with trial touring coach Nicolas Massu in the California desert for ten days now - and has "rediscovered the fun of tennis", as head coach Günter Bresnik revealed in an interview with the Kleine Zeitung . "It is important to me that he plays good tennis again there and exudes joy," Bresnik continued, "the result is irrelevant."
The problem with playing despite physical limitations: self-confidence suffers. Thiem must see "that he can get a lot of matches in the legs, because then he always plays really well," said the coach.
Nicolas Massu: Always in a good mood
Bresnik does not yet know whether and how long it will continue with Massu. "We're going to try it out now," he says of the Chilean single and double Olympic champion from 2004. Massu is "not a trainer, but he has a lot of experience". And: "Above all, he always spreads a good mood - that's very important."
Ultimately, however, everything is Thiem's decision. "I already have one or two other candidates that I would like to try out," said Bresnik.
At the first Masters tournament of the season on Saturday, Round two, Thiem will face Australian Jordan Thompson. At the start he had a walk-through.