Wolfgang Thiem - "For Dominic, sand is like coming home"
Dominic Thiem has resumed training in Vienna and is preparing for the ATP Tour 500 tournament in Rio de Janeiro. In an interview with tennisnet, father Wolfgang describes the current situation - and also takes a look at Jurij Rodionov, who sensationally won the ATP Challenger tournament there in Dallas.
by Jens Huiber
last edit: Feb 11, 2020, 01:30 pm
tennisnet : Mr. Thiem. After the successful Australian trip, Team Thiem has been back home in Austria for a few days. What are you currently working on?
Wolfgang Thiem : Dominic started training on Sunday. Fitness coach Duglas Cordero came to Vienna on Saturday, the two of them are now training on condition until Thursday. We have one tennis session a day, so we have a couple of youngsters like Marko Andrejic or a player from Serbia who is with us for a week for a trial session. And from Tuesday Dennis Novak will also be added.
tennisnet : Dominic has canceled Buenos Aires, called for Rio de Janeiro. When does it go there, who flies with?
Thiem : On Thursday there will be a flight to Rio de Janeiro, where Duglas will fly with Dominic and Lucas Leitner. There Nicolas Massu joins the team.
tennisnet : Just playing a tournament on clay in South America is new ...
Thiem : That's no problem for Dominic, because sand is like coming home. Since he has no conversion problem.
tennisnet : What happens after the trip to Brazil?
Thiem : After the tournament in Rio, Dominic flies to Los Angeles, where there will be two weeks of fitness training with Dr. Give Michael Reinprecht. I will also join because Nico is involved in the Davis Cup. On March 8th, the focus will be on more tennis, after which there will be Indian Wells and Miami.
"Jurij Rodionov has learned a lot from Mother Nature" - Wolfgang Thiem
tennisnet: The Austrian tournament victory of Jurij Rodionov in Dallas was pleasing. How do you see Jurij's development, who has been working with you for a few months now?
Thiem : Jurij has huge potential, a lot of talent, a lot to see from Mother Nature. Only this talent was promoted, but has not yet been developed accordingly. It was the first time for Jurij that he was involved in a real training process. The fitness training was done by Florian Pernhaupt, but there was little systematic in the tennis area. We tried to give it some structure. And I gave him an experienced touring coach, the Javier Frana. He came on the recommendation of Nicolas Massu, who was previously Nicolas Jarry's coach. Frana herself was once among the top 50 in the world. Fortunately, that worked right the first time, but the point is that we have to miss a corset for Jurij.
tennisnet : Why Javier Frana in particular - and not someone Rodionov is more familiar with?
Thiem : Unfortunately there are few coaches in Austria that you could send as touring coaches with someone like Jurij Rodionov. That would also be a topic that one says: You explicitly train touring coaches. Former Austrian players who are trimmed to tour with Rodionov, who is sure to have top 100 potential.