Australia Open: Thiem is looking for the Shadow

42 degrees Celsius were too much for Dominic Thiem, the confessing “warm showerer”. The Austrian preferred more refreshing conditions the day before his third round match against Frenchman Adrian Mannarino.

From Ulrike Weinrich from Melbourne

Dominic Thiem didn’t want to exaggerate. One day after his race to catch up and the “Shroud Confession”, the 24-year-old avoided the Sahara heat of Melbourne. Initially, his training session was scheduled for Friday at 1 pm local time on Court 16 – Outdoor. But Thiem and his staff decided to go for the less stressful option – indoor. In the afternoon at the National Tennis Center, directly adjacent to the mighty Hisense Arena in the south of the Batman Avenue area.

The fifth in the world rankings, set higher than ever before by a major in Happy Slam, will leave nothing to chance in the pursuit of his sixth round of the last sixteen at a Grand Slam tournament. The signs for a continuation of the series, they stand Down Under favorably. Against Adrian Mannarino (No. 26) Thiem has won all six comparisons so far and only delivered a total of two sets. Most recently at the US Open in New York, the French left-hander was also the Austrian’s opponent in round three: And the “Dominator” won 7:5,6:3,6:4.

Thiem Volleyliebhaber Mannarino will not take on the light shoulder despite the overly clear statistics. I didn’t feel ideal “, said Thiem – and had an explanation ready at the same time:” It happens to me quite often that the jetlag catches up with me again, even if I’m somewhere between one and a week and a half ago “.

His prescription against the perils of the inner clock: A lot of sleep, good food and intensive care by Physio Alex Stober, who leaves Thiem quite his freedom in the match gleaning. The key point is an oasis of well-being. Following the 3:48-hour roller coaster ride of emotions against Kudla, the Lichtenwörther took his valued “warm shower”. It was the first time that Thiem had to go over five sets in Happy Slam at temperatures of up to 40 degrees Celsius in the shade.

In the duel for the quarter-finals, the winner of the match between Nuremberg’s Maximilian Marterer and Tennys Sandgren (USA) would then wait, who surprisingly eliminated former Melbourne winner Stan Wawrinka. So the field seems to be quite open for Thiem. But the French Open semi-finalist of the last two years doesn’t want to look too far into the second week. When an American media representative at the press conference asked if Thiem thought that he could “go all the way”, that is, up to a possible title, Domi remained cautious.”All the way, it’s quite a long way. I’m thinking about the next round.”