ATP-Finals: Thiem: big chance against the substitute

He had expected David Goffin, after leaving Rafael Nadal it became Pablo Carreno Busta. And against him, Dominic Thiem has a flawless record.

By Florian Goosmann from London

Günter Bresnik sat concentrated in one of the middle rows, and when Dominic Thiem was asked in the press round whether he really enjoyed tennis despite the last results, he had to laugh.

No, his protégé said that it’s not fun every day, especially in the event of bitter defeats. But Thiem tried to stay positive throughout the entire conversation, the chances of reaching the semi-finals were still there, and:”It was definitely more fun than in Vienna or Paris, where I played really badly. It wasn’t my best performance, but it was an open fight to the bitter end,” The chances have even increased after the injury-related retreat of group favorite Rafael Nadal.

Thiem had to fight against Grigor Dimitrov at the beginning of the match with a weak first serve quota, only 37 per cent of the time he had to fight in first set, until the break for the Bulgarian only 33 per cent. I don’t play well enough for my circumstances from the baseline and I sometimes make wrong decisions. The toe injury did not affect him, Thiem continued, saying that he moved normally and painlessly.

On Tuesday, free of play, we had training sessions (“I want to improve these things”) with the youngster Miomir Kecmanovic. In the second group game, Thiem will now not face Rafael Nadal or David Goffin, but Pablo Carreno Busta have followed suit due to the loss of the world’s number one player, which has increased Thiem’s chances of winning. He meets Carreno Busta at 9 pm CET in the evening. The Spaniard had the days before with Goffin, Nadal. Zverev and Dimitrov are training, Sam Querrey has also been on the track since Tuesday, the replacement number two (who started with Federer).

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Carreno Busta’s successes in 2017: victory at Estoril, Rio de Janeiro final, Indian Wells semi-final, Roland Garros quarter-finals – and the semi-finals at the US Open, into which he had entered without a match against a top 30 player, and finally lost to Kevin Anderson.

In a direct comparison, Thiem leads on tour level with 4:0: Three matches on sand, both played in 2015 in Gstaad, 2016 in Buenos Aires and 2017 in Rio de Janeiro, one on hard court, in 2016 at the US Open, where Thiem won after a false start in four rounds. Under a closed roof it is the first duel between the two. With a victory the Lichtenwörther would be back in the game, against fear opponent David Goffin it could be the semi-finals on Friday.