ATP Finals: Dominic Thiem and Alexander Zverev put the finishing touches on each other

A little more than 24 hours before Dominic Thiem’s first appearance at the ATP Finals 2018, the Austrian number one has once again relaxed with his German counterpart Alexander Zverev.

From Jens Huiber

Alexander Zverev, maybe. The German number one could be the player who made the leap from junior to men’s tennis even better prepared, thanks to brother Mischa, who introduced the younger offspring to the finer points of the ATP Tour early on. Otherwise Chun Hsin Tseng is the first candidate for the title of the junior who was allowed to train with the very best early on.

Already at the US Open, the Taiwanese, who had won the junior titles in Roland Garros and Wimbledon this year, stood as a hitting partner on the court, Dominic Thiem, for example, always liked to fall back on Tseng. Why? “Because he plays the ball over the net a hundred times without a mistake,” said Thiem in New York.

Also in London the Lichtenwörther has already practiced with Tseng, on Friday. Saturday morning it was John Isner, who had organized the Junior for hitting. Not surprisingly, the training couples form in such a way that group opponents tend not to stand together on the court. Roger Federer has even made use of the double pool on several occasions, Jack Sock has been allowed to practice with the maestro, and on Friday Pierre-Hugues Herbert as well.

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Dominic Thiem and Alexander Zverev have also moved the draw into different groups, a common training hour goes there both loosely by the hand. They both know the terrain well by now, for Thiem, who opens on Sunday at 14:00 local time (in our LIVE-TICKER and on SKY) against Kevin Anderson, the course should be a bit slower, the questions at Zverev were more about the well-being of the shoulder.

The problem had been with him throughout the year, the Hamburg-born man had explained on Friday that in Paris-Bercy things would have got worse against Karen Khachanov. A few days’ break would have helped, but the first concrete results of the collaboration with Ivan Lendl would take a little longer. In the summer of 2019, they want to take stock, says Zverev.

Asked about the introduction of a towel holder at the #NextGen finals in Milan, Zverev said he wasn’t responsible: He would have taken the towel with him only twice a year. It would have been worst in Washington. By the way, Alexander Zverev won the tournament for the second time in a row.

However, the chances of welding streams in the O2 Arena are bad anyway: The hall is cooled down to a pleasant temperature, the warmth should be brought along by the spectators. Thiem and Zverev were sweating a lot around lunchtime, the line-up was also remarkable alongside the two top players. Ivan Lendl and Alexander Zverev sr. provided the German number one in stereo with tips, Günter Bresnik did this solo.

Physio Alex Stoiber is always at Thiem’s side anyway, girlfriend Kristina Mladenovic has given herself the end of the training session. So did Zverev manager Patricio Apey. In 2018, Thiem and Zverev played against each other only once, in the quarter-finals of Paris. Zverev wasn’t quite fit back then, as far as the shoulder was concerned, but it seems to be going up again at the moment.

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After Zverev and Thiem another Junior introduced himself: Sebastian Baez, who was allowed to compete against Novak Djokovic. However, on the Practice Court 1. The Center Court was previously reserved for Chun Hsin Tseng.