Günter Bresnik, long runner in Paris

Out of sight, out of mind? Are you kidding me? Are you serious when you say that. Günter Bresnik is by no means indifferent to the career of his former protégé Dominic Thiem after the ugly end in spring 2019, including the legal dispute. After all, he had worked with the former tennis world number three for around a decade and a half and led him to the first French Open final in 2018.

“Actually, I wanted to see him as number one. For me, Dominic was someone who, constructed on the drawing board, almost can’t get past him,” recalls Bresnik, who currently has Julia Grabher and the Russian Alexander Shevchenko under his wing.

The 62-year-old Viennese, who has more than 30 appearances as a supervisor at the French Open, is still convinced that Thiem, who failed in five sets in the first round of Paris, is back at the top of the world can create. “Even if I’m laughed at for it: The top 15 is possible. Let him play well for two tournaments,” says Bresnik: “Self-confidence always comes from performance, but performance does not come from self-confidence – that’s a misconception.”

Thiem is basically a mentally stable player: “One doesn’t win so many tournaments, doesn’t beat Federer, Djokovic, Nadal even on big stages if he’s mentally weak.”

“That’s a good coach”

For Bresnik, Thiem is “a better tennis player than (Daniil) Medvedev, than (Casper) Ruud. Ruud even had a chance at number one, Dominic never.” Thiem’s ​​change of coach from Nicolas Massu to Benjamin Ebrahimzadeh can be positive for Bresnik: “He’s a good coach. I assume that in the long term he will think about what needs to be done so that Dominic can play like he did from 2016 to 2020. That was during the time he’s among the top favorites week after week.”

How does Bresnik assess Thiem’s ​​current level of performance, who appears in 85th place in the ATP live ranking? “He’s still at his level, but you also have to be able to wake someone up from a deep sleep, his shots are resting. I think the serve is very good. I wouldn’t see much difference from before. Things are like that a bit more difficult when they’re in motion. There’s still a bit of a problem there.”

One, who hasn’t worked with Bresnik since mid-May, tore French tennis fans out of their seats. We’re talking about showman Gael Monfils (Fra), who defeated Sebastian Baez (Arg) 3: 6, 6: 3, 7: 5, 1: 6, 7: 5 after injury problems.