Wimbledon: Dominic Thiem - Slightly sniffy, but full of anticipation
Dominic Thiem will enter the 2023 Wimbledon tournament on Tuesday. By then the Austrian should be fully fit again.
by Jens Huiber
last edit:
Jul 02, 2023, 09:14 pm
Dominic Thiem is still enjoying a Monday without a game tomorrow. Why this is a good thing from the point of view of the US Open champion of 2020 becomes clear from the greeting before the press conference on Sunday afternoon: Thiem's voice is noticeably busy, so every day's break helps. Thiem said he woke up on Friday with a cold. "At some point it was just that time again. I was fit for a long time anyway, now it just happened. But we managed well that we didn't play the matches on Friday and Saturday."
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In this specific case, "The Matches" would have been two appearances at the exhibition fight tournament in Hurlingham, the first of which was against Carlos Alcaraz. But he also canceled. "I should be fit on Tuesday."
Then Stefanos Tsitsipas is waiting. Dominic Thiem does not want to interpret the fact that the Greek could have other things on his mind than tennis at the moment to his advantage. "That certainly plays a small role," said Thiem when asked about the publicly fought romance between Tsitsipas and Paula Badosa. "But it could also be that he suddenly plays big. Because a Grand Slam is always different. If he doesn't play well, I'll gladly take it. But I go onto the pitch expecting to see the best version of Stefanos.”
Thiem remembers Magic Monday 2017
But he is extremely happy because the game against Tsitsipas will certainly be played on a large court. And due to the corona pandemic and the aftermath of his injury, Dominic Thiem has not been at Wimbledon since 2019. Thiem last played on one of the two big courts in 2016, losing to Jiri Vesely in three tight sets.
"Those were also my best years on grass, when I also won in Stuttgart," said Thiem. A year later they made it into the round of 16. "There was still the Sunday off in the middle, where the whole facility is empty and you're still in the competition. And Monday was really, really cool for the spectators because there were eight men's and eight women's singles. And being part of this Magic Monday as a player is definitely my best memory here. Even if I would have liked to have won the match against Berdych in 2017."
In any case, Dominic Thiem has nothing to lose in the competition that starts tomorrow. But can only win. For example a second round duel with Andy Murray. But that will also depend on whether Stefanos Tsitsipas really appears on the court in his best version.
Here is the individual tableau in Wimbledon
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