Günter Bresnik has long been regarded in Austria as a legendary trainer and expert. Now Dominic Thiem’s coach reacted to criticism of the centre of excellence in Wiener Neustadt.
Austria’s former Grand Slam winner Thomas Muster harshly criticised the tennis centre of excellence in Wiener Neustadt at the ATP 500 tournament in Vienna:”My dog has a better life than some people there,”said Muster. The head of the academy and coach of the Austrian number one Dominic Thiem reacted to the accusations.
As usual, the 56-year-old took no notice of the matter and expressed his incomprehension about Pattern’s statements:” I find it not bad. Not at all, sir. We have a hard court, a clay court. We have clean changing rooms, a fitness centre, a running track, a swimming pool – we have everything you need,”explained Bresnik in an interview with the Tiroler Tageszeitung. For the Thiem supervisor, he added, it is still the best centre of excellence in Austria.
A refurbishment of the premises promised by Robert Groß, the President of the Austrian Tennis Association at the tournament in Kitzbühel, considers Bresnik to be absurd and would rather invest the money in other areas:”The reasons are not to be found in the rooms, but rather in the people who work in them. Another floor covering? Another light in the hall? It doesn’t matter. The 8 to 14 year olds must work properly. I can give up better coaches, but I don’t have to change the premises,”the Viennese born in Vienna added. When it came to the issue of spatial separation between men and women, Bresnik really got going, because the women’s performance centre is located in Linz:”It’s an absurd idea to separate men and women according to location. This is idiotic. The separation according to gender is just as absurd,”Bresnik said.
The 56-year-old also took the coaches of the growing players into his duties. Apart from Barbara Haas, there are only few offspring in the women’s area, except for adolescence. Bresnik knows the reasons:”The coaches always complain that the players are running away. They should rather consider why this is the case. I haven’t run away at that age.”
The tennis expert is sure that there are some players in Austria who want to play tennis and have talent:”The mistakes are made earlier. And I don’t encourage 20 year-old players to drive around the world and not bring anything together. I don’t care about them, they shouldn’t give a dime. But I can train the eight- to twelve-year-olds in such a way that they want to do what at 15,16,17″ added Bresnik.
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