Jez Green: "Will see vintage Dominic Thiem soon"
As a guest author at Tennishead, Jez Green spoke about the current status of his protégé Dominic Thiem . And gave the fans of the Austrian hope.
by Michael Rothschädl
last edit:
Oct 19, 2022, 09:41 am
Jez Green is by no means a blank slate on the tennis circuit. And so it was a prominent newcomer that Dominic Thiem reported to his team. The team that should accompany the Austrian on what is probably the most difficult journey of his career. On the rocky journey back to the top of the world after months of serious injury. And a suddenly completely new situation.
"It's been a long way back from his injury, but we have full confidence in this process," Jez Green says of the past few months. The Lichtenwörther slowly began to play tennis as early as September of the previous year. First with soft balls, then slowly with higher intensity. Further setbacks were to follow quickly, after wrist pain recurred in early 2022, the decision was made to cancel Miami and Indian Wells.
Green reviews Restart on Sand
A good decision as Green points out: "The clay was better for the shot he had to find again - his forehand. Everything else was fine and since he had the injury on the forehand we had to find that shot after the breaks." , according to the American. "On clay you literally have to accelerate, it's that simple. If you don't accelerate on clay, the ball isn't going anywhere. On grass or fast hard courts you don't have to accelerate like that - the ball flies anyway, but you don't stand a chance on clay . That's why we stayed on clay because the only way to play the shot was to stay on clay."
These weeks have had a particularly positive effect on the fitness of the Austrian, who is therefore an "exciting project" for Green because he had a rather idiosyncratic relationship to coordinated fitness blocks during his career. "He never really did a structured fitness program because he worked with a coach who was a bit old-fashioned and did everything on the pitch. We changed that. We backed his fitness program with science, which he didn't really do before ."
Challenge to Djokovic & Nadal
That's why there is legitimate hope that we will soon see a fully recovered Dominic Thiem: "I think we will soon see the real, vintage Dominic Thiem. He has to play matches now and now needs 25 top-class matches to come back to get to the top and I think he's ready for that," Green said. "He's fresh, he's ready, he's fit and he's pain free. With another big block of training in November and December I think he'll be at a different level in Australia. He'll be at full strength and even stronger, fitter and be faster than ever."
And then the American also has something that can definitely be understood as a declaration of war on the competition. Specifically: to Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal. "He can play tennis for five more years, so he has very good opportunities. (...) Novak and Rafa will not want to see a completely fit Dominic Thiem again," said Green, who is already looking at the Australian Open. And there Dominic Thiem should be able to attack again.