Thiem lost in Munich: “It’s all there, but not all the time”

Austria’s tennis star Dominic Thiem has to wait for the second win over a top ten player since his comeback after suffering a serious wrist injury in June 2021.

If the 29-year-old from Lichtenwörther had defeated Hubert Hurkacz (Pol) in the Antwerp hall, today in the quarter-finals of the ATP 250 clay court event in Munich against the number ten in the world, Taylor Fritz, was the end of the line. Thiem lost to the American after 92 minutes 3: 6, 4: 6.

“It’s all there in terms of strokes, but not all the time,” summed up the 2020 US Open champion. “It wasn’t a bad week, I feel better, that’s what stays,” said Thiem, who now moves on to Madrid, where he received a wild card for the main competition.

“What is still missing is consistency. Sometimes I’m almost at 100 percent, then I fall back to 60. It would be important for everything to level off at 80,” explained the winner of 17 ATP tournaments, who had completed a “double shift” on Friday.

In the early afternoon, Thiem blew to catch up against Marc-Andrea Hüsler (WRL No. 63), whom he played 5: 7, 6 :4, 6:4 down.

Later, the Lower Austrian didn’t lack power, but precision. After a bumpy start, Thiem had his chances against Fritz – especially in the second set, in which an early break made it 2-0. “I should have started there. But there were mistakes that I have to eradicate,” Thiem looks back. The favorite took the world number 101. the service twice in a row and pulled away to 4:2. That was the preliminary decision.

There was also no sense of achievement for world number one Novak Djokovic, who lost to his Serbian compatriot Dusan Lajovic 4: 6, 6: 7 (8) in the quarter-finals in Banja Luka.