ATP: Dominic Thiem starts in mini sand court season

Dominic Thiem has a successful Davis Cup weekend with two victories behind him. For him it was a good preparation for the upcoming “mini season” on sand, to which he leaves on Thursday.

Thiem’s 5-0 win over Belarus in the Austrian Davis Cup team’s 5-0 win over Belarus was two points. In the VAZ of St. Gallen he took care of the following in the process Pölten was particularly happy for the fans, because despite a 3-0 lead and the already fixed promotion of the ÖTV team, he had nevertheless taken part in his second match of the weekend.

A top 10 player who plays a dead rubber, i. e. a meaningless match, is rare. If I hadn’t played, I’d have trained anyway,”Thiem explained.” A training match in front of almost 3,000 fans is a great thing.”

Responding to his performance in the two-match success over Ilya Ivashka, Thiem was not completely satisfied, but it’s a different situation when there’s nothing more to be said,”said Thiem, who tried to train a few things.

The mental challenge of playing a match with concentration was in the foreground. The 24-year-old was also struck by the tactical potential for improvement:”Sometimes it happens to me that I play too defensively on clay,”Thiem remarked.

After the Davis Cup, Thiem joins the 12. The Argentina Open in Buenos Aires will be back on the ATP tour. Two years ago, Thiem won the clay court tournament in which he was top seeded, beating Nicolas Almagro 7:6 (2), 3:6,7:6 (4) in the final. This was the fourth win of his career at the time.

Like in many other tournaments, Thiem is also one of the hot contenders for a triumph this year. A few years ago, I was able to play every match free because I was the underdog,”Thiem said,” This is quite different now, because, for example, dropping out in the first week of a Grand Slam would be a disappointment. You get used to the pressure you feel at every tournament.”

Thiem is supported by Spanish coach Galo Blanco on his trip to South America. Günter Bresnik is not allowed until the Masters in Miami (21. March to 1. Galo is a really good coach,”said Thiem,” It’s an extremely good cooperation. He can feel good about what I’m doing.”

The Lower Austrian plans to compete in the doubles competition in Argentina with his good friend and local hero Diego Schwartzman. One week later, Thiem will be defending his title at the ATP-500 event in Rio de Janeiro, before he will be battling Rafael Nadal for victory at the Acapulco hard courts.