Aurélie SACCHELLI, published on Monday, November 9, 2020 at 3:24 p.m.
Qualified for the London Masters as world n ° 3, Dominic Thiem has confirmed his participation, even if he has just lived through hectic days.
Beaten in the quarter-finals of “his” tournament in Vienna by Andrey Rublev, future winner, Dominic Thiem was hit in the foot and preferred to give up the Paris Rolex Masters last week. Today, the 27-year-old Austrian player is cured and will leave for London this Wednesday, to play in the Masters. World number 3, the winner of the US Open hopes to do better there than last year, when he was narrowly beaten in the final by Stefanos Tsitsipas. But his mind was a little elsewhere in recent days, due to the Vienna bombing and the coronavirus pandemic. He explained it on his website.
Thiem : ” It was a week with thousands of thoughts in mind “
“Nothing is calm this fall. The last few weeks have been very busy. After losing in the quarterfinals of my home tournament in Vienna, I recovered from my foot injury. It took me two, three days to recover, then I started my preparation for the London Masters at the O2-Arena. It has been a week with thousands of thoughts in mind. My trainer Nicolas Massu literally lived through the atrocious terrorist attack in Vienna.He was close to the attack, having dinner in a restaurant, and was locked up until 2:30 a.m. A terrorist attack that shocked the whole world! Suddenly, life stopped in Austria. It is very very sad. The situation around the coronavirus here in Austria is even less amusing. However, the “Athletes of the Year” awards ceremony will take place on Tuesday. Of course, without an audience! There will be no press conference and security checks will be closely watched. I’ll be there with my brother Moritz. This will be my last public appearance before the Masters in England. Wednesday I leave for London with a “mini-team”. This is the final goal of 2020, the memories of last year are always nice! During the group stage I had beaten Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, then I beat Alexander Zverev in the semi-final. Then I lost 7-6 in the third set against Stefanos Tsitsipas. It’s just a few points that decided heaven or hell … “
Two Grand Slam finals for Thiem in 2020
Heaven, he hopes to find it on November 22, the day of the final, which would conclude a particular season but which will remain historic for him. Dominic Thiem won the very first Grand Slam tournament of his career, at the US Open against Alexander Zverev.. He also played the final of the Australian Open, lost against Novak Djokovic, but also the quarter-finals at Roland Garros, where he was beaten by Diego Schwartzman. Three opponents he could find in London. The draw for the group stage will take place on Thursday.
