Although the final score was a double 6-3, the first set had nothing to do with the second. That’s how interesting tennis is, never trust a result without having seen the match. In this case, we speak of the defeat of Dominic Thiem in the second round of Vienna ATP 500 at the hands of a Daniil Medvedev who showed that there are still several stages of confidence and filming that the Austrian must overcome. What we did not expect was to see Dominic arrive at a press conference to take stock of his week and close his 2022 calendar. We will not see him in Paris-Bercy or in other events, that is how he clearly states it in statements collected hours later by Tennisnet.
“We have decided that from now on I will focus entirely on preparing for next year. I know that I will end up with a ranking close to 100, 101 or 102, so it should be enough to enter the final table of the Australian Open, in normal situations it should be enough”, pointed out the current number 113 in the world ranking, a position that will improve slightly after his participation in the Erste Bank Open. Of course, it seems that he will have to wait until the last minute to find out if he should face the first Grand Slam of 2023 from the previous phase or directly from the main draw.
As for the year that has already left behind, we can say that it has been a season in which to say that it has gone from less to more is an understatement. Thiem has gone from absolutely nothing to showing an explosive version, with great victories and a progressive dynamic on the court. In total there have been 19 tournaments played with a record of 23 wins and 19 losses. For the first time in his career he was unable to win a Grand Slam, as he lost in the first round of Roland Garros (Dellien) and the US Open (Carreño). But there is something worse than this fact: the seven defeats with which he started the course. It was not until July, when he opted to go down a step and play a Challenger in Austria, when that first victory finally came. Since then, the situation has been different.
The confidence of that first victory in fourteen months led him to chain quarter-finals in Bastad, semi-finals in Gstaad and quarter-finals in Kitzbühel. Okay it was not the most powerful tour, without big names on the horizon, that would come after the US Open. That’s where the Austrian really raised the bar to propel himself through a final at the Rennes Challenger to then garner round of 16 in Metz (Hurkacz), round of 16 in Tel Aviv (Cilic), semi-finals in Gijon (Rublev) , semifinals in Antwerp (Korda) and round of 16 in Vienna (Medvedev). Do not focus so much on the round and yes on the name of the rival. For the first time in a long time, Thiem was beginning to fall for people of his own class.
THE LAST JUMP
“In 2023 I want to start as a machine, that’s my only goal. Due to the wrist injury I suffered last year I have not been able to combine tennis tournaments with daily physical training, I know that this combo is what will take me far in the future”, recognized the Austrian at a press conference, fully committed to a plan with which he hopes to make the final leap from next January. With his coach at his side, the great Nicolás Massú, the one from Wiener Neustadt seems to be finally going through the last meters of a long tunnel.
Yes, it is true that he started the season inside the top50 and ends it outside the top100. That in the big events he was not up to the task, that spring came too early for his evolution and that the wildcard received next week to play the Qualy of the Paris-Bercy Masters 1000 has not been enough to attract him, that is why he has chosen the option of shelving 2022 and going on vacation for ten days. On his return he will begin the countdown, the hard work in preseason and the beginning of the dream of returning to the elite. A exhibition in saudi arabia It will be the first event where we see him, are you looking forward to it?
