The next setback for Dominic Thiem

This was not how Dominic Thiem imagined his new start after separating from coach Benjamin Ebrahimzadeh. The 30-year-old from Lichtenwörth, who is top seed at the Challenger in Szekesfehervar, clearly noticed his lack of match practice. Ultimately that was simply not enough. The former US Open champion struggled several times on the way to a 3:6, 4:6 defeat in the first round against the largely unknown Polish qualifier Daniel Michalski, who is only number 295 in the world.

Thiem was a shadow of his former self, even though he got off to a good start (2-0 lead). On the rather slow indoor clay court, the Lower Austrian, who is in position 91 in the ATP rankings, made far too many unforced errors. Thiem has already acted much harder, more powerfully and more precisely. It was a strange game in which Thiem was wasteful with his break opportunities. He only used one out of a total of seven.

The coaching effect did not materialize for the time being. Dominic is now being coached again by his father Wolfgang Thiem, and he is accompanied on the tour by former Latvian professional Karlis Lejnieks, who was once ranked 347 in the world rankings. was. Thiem played his first ATP match since the Australian Open. On January 15th he was defeated by Felix Auger-Aliassime (Can) in Melbourne in five sets after a tough fight. The level at that time was significantly higher than that now in Hungary.

Thiem has a lot of work waiting for him.