US Open: Dominic Thiem would have taken half a meter more

One of the best matches of his career – that was Dominic Thiem’s assessment of his success against Kevin Anderson. Against Rafael Nadal the next one has to follow.

By Jens Huiber from New York City

Günter Bresnik then turned to the next generation on the middle Sunday afternoon. The star coach made a pilgrimage to Court 11, the final phase of the first-round match of Chun Hsin Tseng, the young Taiwanese who had always been available as Dominic Thiem’s shooting partner during the last few days.

Tseng didn’t raise any tension, breaded the American Toby Kodat in 57 minutes 6:2 and 6:0, Bresnik enjoyed the shadow for a few more minutes, his working day had been a more successful one.

Dominic Thiem had not been in such a hurry against Kevin Anderson. On the whole, however, the game against the South African ended in 157 minutes of enjoyable tennis. From an Austrian point of view. Thiem did not give Anderson a single break chance, even though the rate of the first serves was just under 50 percent.

It must have been a great satisfaction to win against this opponent, on this field and almost exactly one year after the bitter end against Juan Martin del Potro. In fact, Thiem’s cheering turned out more emotional than usual. The result against Anderson is now 2:6 victories.

But the key lay in the returns, Thiem had borrowed from Philipp Kohlschreiber. The day before at Louis Armstrong Stadium, the German knew an amazing amount about Alexander Zverev’s service, also because he chose a position far behind the baseline.

Now Thiem took them, too. Three years ago he was outnumbered by Anderson on Court 17, a spot that lacks exercise space. Not so the newly built Armstrong. Well, Thiem would have wanted to stand half a meter more to the rear, explained the Lichtenwörther in the press conference, but the feeling was good with the returns from the beginning.

He had already trained them on Saturday, and on the day of the match, a setback exercise would no longer help anyway. Günter Bresnik paid more attention to a poisonous slice.

It is not without irony that Rafael Nadal is a man who becomes a danger to the linesmen behind the baseline with every return. That was also noted by attentive observers of the tennis circus: Jon Wertheim, journalist for US Sports Illustrated and book author (Strokes of Genius), commented that roaming charges would probably be incurred, as far as the two quarter-final opponents were on Tuesday.

Dominic Thiem still wants to play aggressively. He has to be. In Monte Carlo, for example, he had started far too passively, which will not happen to him in two days. Thiem beat Nadal three times, all nine games so far were played on ashes. Nevertheless, the hard court debut will bring only a few secrets with it.

Which prompted Dominic Thiem to renounce a special preparation for Nadal. So it must be Chun Hsin Tseng again. He’d give him an incredible amount of rhythm, play the balls 500 times over the net if he had to. The same also applies to Rafael Nadal. The one, however, with more spin and higher speed.