On the eve of the Vienna Open main draw getting underway Dominic Thiem describes his task of trying to defend his title as ‘almost’ mission impossible and with good reason too.
The world No.3 returns to competitive tennis in his home country for the first time since becoming a Grand Slam champion at the US Open last month. In Vienna he faces threats from onset with no fewer than six top 10 players participating, including world No.1 Novak Djokovic. To put that into context last year there were only two.
“It’s always special to start as a defending champion at a tournament, but this year is unreal, the whole draw,” atptour.com quoted Thiem as saying on Sunday. “It was strong and then Novak arrived and it got unreal even [more]. [It is] probably the best [ATP] 500 tournament ever. Defending the title is not mission impossible, but almost.”
This year marks the 10th anniversary of when Thiem made his Vienna debut by losing in the first round of qualifying. Since then he has managed to win 13 matches and earn just over $724,000 in prize money at the tournament. However, it wasn’t until last year when he got his breakthrough by getting past the quarter-final stage for the first time. He went on to defeat Matteo Berrettini and Diego Schwartzman to become only the third home player to ever win the tournament.
“[It is] probably one of the most emotional ones as well because I’ve been here since I was a four or five-year-old kid every year as a spectator who didn’t understand tennis, then as a spectator who was super interested in tennis,” he said of Vienna.
“From one year to another all of a sudden [I was] a player qualifying then [in the] main draw with a wild card, main draw directly, first time seeded. Everything that can happen in a tennis career happened here in Vienna for me and then to win the title in 2019, a childhood dream came true.”
Seeking his 18th ATP title and third on home territory, Thiem faces danger from the onset. In the first round, he has been drawn against Kei Nishikori who somebody he has a losing head-to-head record against. Although the Japanese player hasn’t played since the French Open and has been troubled by a shoulder injury in recent weeks.
Later on in the draw it is possible that Thiem may have to take on Stan Wawrinka in the second round followed by rising star Jannik Sinner or Andrey Rublev. Despite the tough road ahead, the 27-year-old insists that he is up for the challenge.
“Obviously I was completely done after the French Open, so I took off a week where I did nothing and I also had to still reflect on the US Open title,” Thiem explined. “Then [I] set myself new goals, of course looking forward to the tournament in Vienna, which every year [has been] a special highlight since I [was] a young kid, since I played here for the first time.”
So far in his career Thiem has only defended an ATP title once which was at the Lyon Open between 2015 and 2016. He is seeded second in this year’s Vienna draw.
