ATP: Work on comeback: Dominic Thiem has to be patient

Dominic Thiem injured his ankle two weeks ago at the ATP Masters 100 tournament in Indian Wells and still has to be patient in order not to rush anything and to be able to return to the tour without pain.

At the end of the first set in the match against Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas, Thiem bent his right ankle, held out another set and then had to give up. Diagnosis: Hairline cracks in the bone and a break of several weeks. The tournament in Miami and the Davis Cup participation could put the Lower Austrian off for the time being.

A few weeks after the mishap, however, Thiem is on the road to recovery: “The MRI showed an improvement. The signs are good, but the doctors advise me not to rush things,” Thiem explained.

Thiem has to fully enjoy the compulsory break in order to be able to return to the tour without pain, says coach Günter Bresnik: “If he starts too early, he will have to play with pain”.

A resumption of training is currently unthinkable: “He has not yet done anything. He probably won’t do anything this week either,” Bresnik added.

The fluid in Thiem’s ankle appears to be declining steadily, but it is too dangerous to play with a damaged ankle with water retention as it makes the ankle more susceptible to injury, the doctors explain.

It is not yet possible to predict when the man from Lichtenwörth will be able to stand on the tennis court again. I assume that he might hit balls from a standing position on Thursday or Friday, but you can’t say anything until he has even had a training session in which he has been properly loaded. And before the end of next week it will certainly not be fully burdened,” Bresnik explained in the Kronen Zeitung.