“We will not take a new management. Dominic decided that I should take over the whole thing because I’ve been doing everything in the background for three years anyway,” said Moritz Thiem. You want to keep everything “completely stress-free and on the shortest route”, on which “only Dominic and I make the decisions”.
Regarding the separation of Kosmos and Galo Blanco, who has been acting as manager since mid-June 2021, he said: “There is not much to say about it, we ended the partnership with Kosmos without a dispute or anything like that. Which was also very important to us.” The investment group recently made headlines after the widely announced $3 billion deal with the International Tennis Federation over the Davis Cup was canceled by the ITF.
A lot of work on the South America tour
The Thiem brothers are about to tackle the next task. After losing the Davis Cup duel with Croatia without winning a set of his own, Dominic is going back to the ATP tour. The 29-year-old from Lower Austria will be playing the clay court tournaments in Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro and Santiago de Chile from next week. He has big plans for this South American tour.
Disappointment at Thiem after Davis Cup
The disappointment in Austria’s Davis Cup team is great after the defeat against Croatia. Dominic Thiem in particular left Rijeka without a sense of achievement.
In any case, the former US Open winner hopes that he can finally really pick up speed, also in the direction of the French Open, which will be on the program from the end of May. An important goal would also be to improve in the world rankings so that he can start again in every tournament. Thiem currently sees a need for further improvement in the forehand and serve.
“The forehand is already there, but I don’t use it often enough like I used to.” In addition, unlike in the past, he also misses free or quick points on the serve. “The way I serve, a lot of balls come back. I have few aces, few serves where I don’t have to do anything anymore. Now it’s too often the case that I serve well, then have to keep playing and don’t build up the points like I used to.” He also used his good kick serve, with which he can drive opponents far out of the field, less recently .
The first shot after the serve is currently the biggest difference. “Sometimes, when I’m in the rally, it’s really okay, but the first ball is sometimes too slow and sometimes too out of place.” With his ranking around 100th place, Thiem will of course continue to be able to get strong opponents from the start. “Yes, it can also look bad there with the draws,” said also. If the Lower Austrian only wants to get back to where he was before, then it must work out soon on clay court.
“Dirty victories are just as victories”
At the final press conference after the lost Davis Cup, captain and ex-top ten player Jürgen Melzer Thiem gave advice. “There’s no great secret. If his head is as clear as it has been in the last two days and he manages to accept that it’s not game-wise yet or that he’s not where he was, then he has to work hard for it. Dirty victories are just as victories if you fight for them in your head,” said Melzer.
After his performance in Rijeka, he could not accuse him of anything. Thiem tried everything. “If he takes that to the tour, then I think the dirty victories will come in South America too. Once you have that, it’s a little bit easier.”
Thiem agreed with the former French Open semi-finalist. “It’s little things. It’s the same as Jürgen says, that’s the key, I’ll see that I can get this sorted out in the next tournaments.” He’s currently playing with less conviction in the match. “That will only change with victories, in training the work is going quite well.”
Wildcard or Quali for Indian Wells
In South America he will see if he gets the requested wildcard for Indian Wells, otherwise he will play there in the qualifiers. “Then there are some options, it depends on how I played the tournaments in South America.” There would be the possibility of playing an ATP Challenger between Indian Wells and Miami, qualifying in Miami or returning to Europe and on clay to continue training.
It is important to Thiem that he now gets enough points. “Yes, that’s a goal, that I’ll get back the ranking that I’m in every tournament with.” Even the hoped-for wildcard for Indian Wells is no longer so self-evident. “At some point the wildcards will also be over, and they deserve it too,” he said, laughing.
