Can you finish school and still be a successful tennis professional? Wolfgang Thiem doesn’t believe in it.
Günter Bresnik still remembers well when the young tennis coach Wolfgang Thiem first met him about 20 years ago. Bresnik sent him straight home, he couldn’t pay him enough to feed a young family. But Thiem remained stubborn, came back the next day in tennis clothes and has been working in Bresnik’s tennis school ever since – with success.
The rest is history: son Dominic quickly noticed Austria’s star coach, he soon made him a matter for the boss. The 25-year-old is now a firmly established top ten player. And brother Moritz also tries his tennis career, a few weeks ago he got his first ATP point.
But is a tennis career really predictable? When I meet parents whose children are at the beginning of their career, I feel sorry for them. They don’t know what to expect,” Wolfgang Thiem told derstandard.at. “You just have no idea how much it all costs, and maybe that’s a good thing. If you set up a financing plan, you would probably tear up the piece of paper and take the bat away from the child. If you’re not enthusiastic about sport, you can forget it.” Even within the Thiem family it had been uncertain whether everything would work out – a Plan B had never existed, however.
Both Dominic and Moritz Thiem put all their eggs in one basket and dropped out of school early, a “conscious decision behind which I still stand,” Wolfgang Thiem continued. Because tennis career and school are not compatible. “Those responsible have no idea how time-consuming it is. It’s like an apprenticeship: No one asks a joiner’s apprentice what else he has learned and what happens if he doesn’t make it.”
Similar to Günter Bresnik, Wolfgang Thiem also likes to be critical, the 2018 season of his son Dominic is not really satisfying for him. “He ended up with three good weeks. Lyon, Madrid, Paris. The defeat against Nadal in Paris is all right. He was no good against Zverev in Madrid. After Paris, he started again too soon.” The goal is to extend the good weeks to 70 to 80 percent of the tournaments. “Then he’s top three.”
You can read the whole interview with Wolfgang Thiem here!