The training weeks on Tenerife are coming to an end. Günter Bresnik, coach of Dominic Thiem, is very satisfied with their performance. In the final phase, however, there is still a lot of work to be done.
Actually, you can never please everyone. Günter Bresnik tries anyway. The training group around Dominic Thiem on Tenerife has become even bigger: After Philipp Kohlschreiber joined the team a week ago, Andrey Rublev has now joined the team. The Russian caused a sensation at the US Open last year with his victory over Grigor Dimitrov, before which Lucky Loser won his first tournament victory on the ATP Tour in Umag.
Rublev has already made acquaintance with Thiem on the ATP tour, and a few weeks ago Thiem won their first match in the Vienna Stadthalle.
“A lot of points will be played in the coming days,”says Günter Bresnik, whom all those present will be happy to ask for advice. However, he emphasizes that all players pursue individual goals with their coaches and set different training priorities. Dominic Thiem sums up Bresnik in three words:”fitness, fitness, fitness.”
All right, and when it comes to the playful side, the volley game is also fine-tuned. This suggests that Thiem will be even more aggressive in his match plan for the coming season. Thiem is not lacking in technology, but his net play also depends on trust in his own strength. The better the preparation, the more profitable the flight ball, the better the world number one Rafael Nadal teaches the world number one in this respect:”When the Spaniard appears on the net, it’s usually in a situation where volley is only a matter of form.
At the end of the week, Dominic Thiem will return to Austria with Günter Bresnik and spend Christmas with his family. But only for two days, then we’ll go on to Abu Dhabi. There the Lichtenwörther could meet Novak Djokovic for training purposes under competition conditions. Points for the Race 2018 will be scored in Doha for the first time, as both Thiem and Djokovic have mentioned.
After the Australian Open, the further tournament schedule includes the South and Central America Tour with the attempt to defend the title in Rio de Janeiro, a performance by Thiems at the Davis Cup match of the Austrians in St. Gallen at the beginning of February. Pölten against Belarus is not excluded.
Just like a change in the schedule compared to 2017: Thiem hadn’t played a tournament in the week before the French Open, not like he did in the two years before when he had won the trophy in Nice. Nice is no longer Nice, but Lyon. Dominic gets along very well with the tournament director,”says Günter Bresnik,” and I also think it’s a good idea if he still plays in front of Paris,”but now it’s too early to commit himself to a final start.