Dominic Thiem will change his match plan in the future

He has to defend more than a third of his points in the autumn, mainly due to last year’s two semi-finals in Gijon and Antwerp. During the Davis Cup week, the points from reaching the final of a Challenger in Rennes had already fallen out of his ranking. Even the ticket for the main draw in January at the Australian Open has not yet been fixed.

“That’s the absolute minimum goal, I’m still around 100 points short. I don’t want it to be like this year, where I need a wild card and don’t know whether I’m in.” His actual plan, of course, is to achieve such a good ranking this year that he can be in the main competition at all tournaments of his choice. Especially for the big tournaments like at the Masters 1000 level, for example after Vienna in Paris, he still has to improve.

Basically, he is confident that after the break due to a stomach infection, he will quickly regain his form from the Kitzbühel week and also after the first round of the US Open, said Thiem. “The final (in Kitzbühel, note) gave me a real boost. Since then, I’ve felt a lot more comfortable on the pitch. That’s why I’m confident that if my stomach and body are okay, I’ll play well again.”

“Perfect plan for what the game should look like”

Thiem was convinced of the collaboration with his coach Benjamin Ebrahimzadeh in a media round in the second week of September. No coach could change his basic game much, but one also had to improvise since he was now 30 or older. “We might have to see that I keep the rallies a little shorter, become more aggressive, go to the net more and so on. I know that Benni has a perfect plan for what the game should look like. He also has a lot of experience with all the players Ages. We have a precise plan.”

It has worked well so far, as the example of Kitzbühel shows. Of course, the conditions in Kitzbühel would suit him, Thiem, as well as in Vienna, where he wants to succeed from October 24th. “The surface in Vienna, the balls really suit me, the whole bounce behavior.” There is also the input from mental coach Andreas Marlovits, the Burgenland native should continue to take part in tournaments. Thiem: “Doing the right thing in tight situations is something I’ve lost a bit of. Now I’m more and more able to acquire this ability. Kitzbühel was the perfect proof of that.”

The quarter-final exit in Astana came a little too early for Thiem and his fans’ taste, also because it happened against his “stable colleague” Sebastian Ofner. In the ATP ranking he has initially improved to 72nd place, but the race provides more information about 2023 in this phase. In this, the Lichtenwörthern is in 102nd place and a little something still has to happen with regard to Melbourne.