For Dominic Thiem, today’s match against David Goffin is about his entry into his first semi-final at the ATP finals in London.
By Florian Goosmann from London
Dominic Thiem was just happy:”I’m noticing how much better I feel after winning. A victory is simply much, much more beautiful. Tomorrow you’re going into practice with a much better feeling and with more self-confidence into the match on Friday,”he said after his triumph over Pablo Carreno Busta on Wednesday. A victory that was so deserved – even if Thiem had almost failed because of a weak second set and a poor prey of break chances – he had won 13 pieces in the good two hours with some great, powerful tennis, only used 4 of them.”Now you don’t have to do great calculations,” Thiem knew directly what to expect him in the last group game.”The winner then went on.
Thiem fans are naturally not too good to talk about their next opponent. David Goffin, a welcome training partner and buddy of Thiem, has not yet done much for a friendship on the court. He leads 6:3 in a direct comparison, but, according to Thiem:”I also won two very important matches against him. The quarter-finals in Paris (2016, Note d. Red.) and the final in Gstaad (2015, Note d Red.). That’s better than if I’d never won against him before. And Friday’s match is like a Grand Slam final.”
In Basel in 2014, Goffin won in two sets and in Marseille in 2015, Thiem benefited from Goffin’s relinquishment.
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Both players’ physical condition was the last known unknown factor. Thiem has been struggling with open toes over the past few weeks, which, he says, would not cause him any more problems. The scene in the Carreno-Busta-Match, in which Thiem took off a shoe and shook his foot, didn’t matter much:”That was just a little stupidity. I had the shoes tied too tightly and my big toe fell asleep.”
Goffin’s fitness is still a big question mark. Problems at the knee seemed to interfere with his gossip (0:6,2:6) against Grigor Dimitrov, even if he didn’t want to know anything about it afterwards:”I’ve had the tape on my knees since the US Open, I’ll continue to wear it. But I’m at almost 100 percent,”he assured me – a figure that he finally increased to “100 percent” when the question arose as to whether the long Nadal match was still stuck in his bones. It speaks for Goffin that he’s not looking for excuses. The fact that there are actually more problems at the knee than he wanted to admit, however, was heard in London from several corners, among others from his coach. How far is he against Thiem again at 100 percent? The big question.
Of course, Thiem mustn’t be impressed by this. It’s of course much cooler to play on Friday when you have the chance to be there on Saturday – and it’s not just half a friendly match,”he said happily. Because, says Thiem,”It is one of the most important games. A semi-final here is definitely like a semifinal at a Gramd Slam, maybe even more valuable because you’re only playing against top ten players. But I can’t let that touch me, it’s going to be a very hard tennis match against a very tough opponent.”