ATP: Right direction - Gijon was definitely worth a trip for Dominic Thiem
Austria's tennis figurehead Dominic Thiem took another important step towards the top 100 by participating in the semifinals at the ATP World Tour 250 tournament in Gijon.
by Stefan Bergmann
last edit:
Oct 15, 2022, 11:22 pm
The direction is right! While this statement is often used by politicians at the wrong time, and now and then leads to almost bizarre self-reflection bon mots, it hits the nail on the head in Dominic Thiem's current situation. This week, the Austrian was at the ATP World Tour 250 tournament in Gijon in the second semi-final of this season after participating in the semi-finals in July at the sand court event in Gstaad, Switzerland.
The biggest difference to the already good performance in the summer in the Spanish north-west was above all the way in which the 29-year-old clinched his victories. An absolute brilliant performance against an admittedly overwhelmed Portuguese Joao Sousa (ATP 64), then a fight victory over Marcos Giron (ATP 62) from the USA, who appeared very self-confident, especially at the beginning, and in the quarter-finals a convincing triumph over the world number 29. Francisco Cerundolo from Argentina showed that the Lower Austrian is a force to be reckoned with from now on.
Rublev is happy about Thiem's help
In many cases, the shots were reminiscent of the best times of the 2020 US Open champion, especially the backhand, which has repeatedly provided spectacular point gains both as a longline and cross-court variant, is rarely found in bad ones forms of performance experienced. The forehand, which was the most criticized recently, again has the classic oppressive twist - paired with the right length, the stroke has often prepared the Lichtenwörther for strong point gains.
It was evident, however, that Thiem keeps making the wrong decisions, especially in situations where he is under pressure. Andrey Rublev, his Russian pal who denied him a place in the first final since suffering a serious wrist injury on Saturday, put it this way: "I felt like the match was going my way when suddenly it was 5-4 again and he served. But I was lucky that I played a really good game and Dominic helped me a bit."
Also in the games against Giron - especially the marathon games at the beginning of the second set - and Cerundolo could have gone faster and clearer. If Thiem gains even more self-confidence in this area and thus gives his sensitive overall system the last kick, a comeback to higher ranking regions is not far away. His performances in Tel Aviv and this week in Giron have proven that he is once again on an equal footing with the likes of Rublev and Marin Cilic in terms of speed.
Next week, Nicolas Massu's protégé will serve at the indoor hard court event in Antwerp.