Austria’s Dominic Thiem says the positivity from his coach Nicolas Massu has helped him through what has been a roller-coaster season so far.
The world No.5 heads into the grass swing of the Tour with a win-loss record of 9-8 so far this year and has failed to win back-to-back matches in four of his five most recent tournaments played. The exception being the Madrid Open where he reached the semi-finals. Earlier this year Thiem took a break in order to ‘reset’ and admitted that he was struggling for motivation after achieving one of his career goals by winning the US Open.
Amid the mixed results on the Tour, Thiem says Massu has played a ‘very important’ role in helping him. The Chilean is a former top 10 player who is best remembered for winning a gold medal at the 2004 Olympic Games. Massu won a total of six ATP titles during his career.
“He has been very important to me. It has not been easy for me this season, but he always sees the bright side and has great energy, and that helps me a lot,” Thiem told reporters on Sunday. “I haven’t been feeling good on the court lately, but he’s always been there.’
“I think that soon I will return to my level, and I thank him very much for always being here supporting me.”
Thiem’s next challenge will be at the Mallorca Open where he will be the second seed after Daniil Medvedev. He will be seeking to make amends for his disappointing French Open journey where he was stunned in the first round by Pablo Andujar. However, the Austrian has experienced mixed results on the grass during his career and has only won 50% (14/28) of ATP Tour matches played on the surface.
“After Roland Garros, I started training on the hard court to practice my shots again, which were not good at all and I needed to get them back,” he explained. “Then I started practicing on grass, first in Austria and now in Mallorca.’
“But in the end, you never know what can happen on grass. At the moment, I have improved my shooting and my mobility on the court again and I am very happy with it.”
The 27-year-old is hoping he will be able to regain his form in time for his title defence at the US Open. Thiem has already pulled out of the Olympics in order to focus on preparation leading into the event. Away from the court, he has reunited with former coach Galo Blanco who has now become his agent after joining Kosmos’ new athlete management branch.
“Little by little I am improving and now I am back to normal. I think my problem this year is that I did not train enough at the beginning of the year, and I also had several problems with injuries,” said Thiem.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen at Wimbledon, but I have the goal to do very well there and in the tournaments afterwards, and to be able to put on a good game.”
In Mallorca will start his campaign against either Jan-Lennard Struff or Adrian Mannarino.
