Dominic Thiem has insisted that he is on the right track to start the season in Australia despite pulling out of a key exhibition event this week.
The world No.15 has withdrawn from the Mubadala World Tennis Championship after saying he is ‘not ready to compete at the highest level.’ Thiem hasn’t played a competitive match since June after injuring his wrist at the Mallorca Open. He tried to stage a comeback earlier this year but failed to reach full fitness after hurting his wrist once again.
Thiem says the latest decision to delay his return is due to his current training plan and there are currently no concerns about his wrist. He says his forehand is currently at ‘80 percent’ which would not be good enough to play this week. At the Abu Dhabi exhibition Rafael Nadal, Andrey Rublev and Andy Murray are all playing with the winner taking home $250,000 in prize money.
“Of course I would have loved to play, but it was clear that it would be close,” Tennis 365 quoted Thiem as saying. “My whole process is going according to plan, I am absolutely pain-free, just lagging behind in punch training.
“Experience has shown that everyone plays at full capacity in Abu Dhabi. But I’m not ready for such matches yet, only face it when my forehand is at 100 percent. At the moment it is only 80 percent.”
Despite the late change in plans, Thiem still intends to start his season in Australia and is aiming to play some tournaments in the build up to the first Grand Slam of 2022. Although he has stated that if he is unable to play prior, he would still take part in the Melbourne major.
“I will train here in Dubai for another week and fly to Sydney on December 22nd. I will spend Christmas and New Year there, train a lot and then hopefully play at the ATP Cup,” he said of his upcoming plans.
“I might also play an ATP 250 tournament before the Australian Open. But that depends on my development and the question of whether I still need match practice. But it’s also clear that I would play Melbourne even if I couldn’t play a single match beforehand.”
This year has been a troublesome season for Thiem even before he suffered his injury. On the Tour he won nine out of 18 matches and only managed to reach the semi-finals in one out of seven tournaments played, which was back in May at the Madrid Open. Thiem also lost in the first round of the French Open which was his worst ever result at the Grand Slam.
As for his expectations at the start of the new season, he is keeping grounded after being away from the Tour for six months.
“It’s the first time I’ve had such a long break. Therefore, my expectations for Australia are not the highest. I have to see what it’s like to play matches against the best of the best again. I am assuming that I will only be able to play my way deeper into the tournaments again in the course of the year.” Thiem concluded.
Thiem has won a total of 17 ATP titles and earned more than $28.8M in prize money so far in his career.
