Dominic Thiem’s start to the new season has suffered a blow after he suffered a straight sets loss in his opening match at the ATP Cup.
The reigning US Open champion was far from his best as fell 6-2, 6-4, to Italy’s Matteo Berrettini in Melbourne Park. A player who has proven to be problematic for the Austrian on the Tour in the past. In their latest clash Thiem dropped serve four times and could only win 42% of his second service points during his clash. During one stage of the match Berrettini won eight games in a row.
“The first official match is always something different with all the tension and the nerves and everything,” said Thiem.
“Matteo is definitely not the greatest opponent for me because he serves I think between 210 and 220 the first serve. It was very tough for me.’
“I thought in general that he played a very good match.”
Thiem is hoping for a strong performance in the tournament this week ahead of the Australian Open where he is seeking to go one step further than his runner-up position 12 months ago. Last year he finished the season inside the world’s top three for the first time in his career and also reached the final of the ATP Finals in London. Although he has recently admitted that there is ‘no guarantee’ that he will be able to reproduce that form again in 2021.
Reflecting on his latest loss, Thiem admits that it usually takes him time to get going again following the off-season. The 27-year-old also lost two out of his three singles matches at the ATP Cup last year.
“Towards the end it got better from my side, but actually I’m never the guy who has the greatest starts to a new season or after a long time off. There’s many, many things to improve and to adjust still,” he said.
“It doesn’t make it easier that I had to face a top-10 opponent in the first match after quite a long time.”
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the run-up to the Australian Open has been dramatically changed following the 14-day quarantine all players had to enter into. Players will play one tournament before the start of the Grand Slam next week but Thiem doesn’t believe the change in schedule will be an issue.
“We’ve got at least two great matches this week with the ATP Cup, then next week straight-away the Australian Open. That’s not such a long time in between. Last year it was the same in New York and also the same in Roland Garros. Everything was different,” he pointed out.
“So actually we have been here for almost three weeks in Australia. That was more time to adjust and to get used to jet lag, to conditions, to everything. So way more time to adjust to that than usual. That shouldn’t be a problem.”
At the ATP Cup Austria lost 2-1 to Italy who also won the decisive doubles match. They will play France later this week.
