Dominic Thiem’s victory over Aljaz Bedene in Buenos Aires was his ninth time as tournament winner. The signs are good for a strong year 2018.
Check it. Dominic Thiem has remained untitled for almost twelve months, since Sunday in Buenos Aires this major route is history. Thiem has underlined two things with his impressive performance: He is in excellent physical condition and cannot be disturbed by temperatures around 30 degrees Celsius (as opposed to semi-final opponents Gael Monfils, for example). In the final, he occasionally even let the towel go back unused, a boon in contrast to the notorious “Towelers” on the tour. And it is also a sign of concentration on the essentials, victory.
More importantly, Thiem has signalled to his opponent that it is no fun at all to play against him on clay. The heavy spin grabs as always, on the forehand and backhand sides. Those facing Thiem usually have to act a few metres behind the baseline. More likely to respond. Here and there a shot to the finish is fired, that was also the case with Aljaz Bedene – but not enough to put Thiem in trouble.
Dominic Thiem’s way to the title in Buenos Aires is not unlike that of Roger Federer: Zeballos, Pella, Monfils, Bedene, that doesn’t sound any worse than Bemelmans, Kohlschreiber, Haase and Seppi. Of course Thiem was supposed to beat these opponents on sand (no: on any ground), but the sovereignty of Austria’s number one was remarkable. At the beginning of the year, the now nine-time winner was seen in Doha in a similar way, where the big coup was also possible before Thiem’s illness.
Especially since there are some points that Thiem can make even better: starting with the efficiency of break points. And the impact from the advantage side outwards. Of course, the service in the matches against Zeballos, Monfils and Bedene was untouchable, but if the kick on you backhand of the right-handers comes regularly, nothing stands in the way of another brilliant sand-court campaign.
And yes, let me say this to the notorious naggers, Dominic Thiem has quite rightly established himself among the world’s top ten players with his performances. Or does anyone deny Grigor Dimitrov’s top ten rating, whose performances on Sand 2017 were not nearly as good as those of Thiems on Hartplatz? With the exception of the Big Four plus Stan Wawrinka in normal form, all the top players have their preferred run, respectively. show varying degrees of performance on different surfaces. It remains to be seen whether Federer would like to prove this once again on sand.
Dominic Thiem’s programme is going to be pretty tightly timed in the coming weeks, this week in Rio de Janeiro is about defending the title, followed by Acapulco and the two major U. S. hard court tournaments. The performance in Buenos Aires, however, whets the appetite for more tennis by the 24-year-old Lower Austrian.