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Although it wasn’t enough to achieve the victory he had hoped for, Dominic Thiem was certainly not dissatisfied with his performance after his first-round defeat at the Erste Bank Open against Stefanos Tsitsipas.

If the former world number three and 2020 US Open winner had played like this more often in the past season, in his opinion he would not only be in a place around 100 (currently 99) in the ATP ranking.

At least the direct competition agrees with Thiem in this regard: “To be honest: Dominic is now playing at a very good and solid level again,” said Tsitsipas after his hard-fought 7:6 (5), 6:4 victory over the Lichtenwörth native. It was the Greek’s sixth victory in what is now his eleventh duel against Thiem.

“Dominic has weapons that make him dangerous”

“I’ve played against him many times – on many different surfaces, so I can assess that quite well. He’s still got it. He serves well, hits the balls well and moves well too,” said Tsitsipas, who was with naturally had no joy in the draw.

“Dominic is not a player you can easily get ahead against. He has weapons that make him dangerous.”

In contrast to previous times, “not much has changed when you play against Dominic. He still serves very well. This time too he controlled the balls very well and let me run. I had to work hard for every point. Above all In the first set he maintained full concentration on his serves.”

“He served well and then always followed up aggressively on the following point. There’s not really much you can do if you can’t hit absolutely great returns. But that’s easier said than done,” said Tsitsipas.

Tsitsipas believes Thiem will be more successful in 2024

“But I fought and put him under pressure, he then missed a few forehands and I hit a few returns. That’s how I was able to get the break in the second set. But before that he could have easily caught my serve “It was really very close,” said the Greek, happy to have narrowly prevailed.

Accordingly, he believes Thiem can make a big leap forward next year: “I’ve only followed his season every now and then, but I’m pretty sure that his next season will be significantly better than the last one. He always has it still on it!”

It is completely normal for Tsitsipas to have problems getting back on the ATP tour after such a long injury break. “If you don’t play matches for so long, you just lack that self-confidence and you don’t know how to deal with match situations. That affects the game.”

For the Greek, Thiem is still one of the best players of the last decade. “Dominic achieved incredible things in tennis a few years ago. He is one of the few players who was able to win a Grand Slam tournament with a one-handed backhand. Otherwise there were only Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka. That is anything but easy, because most people simply play a two-handed backhand,” said the Greek, who himself is one of the proponents of a one-handed backhand.

2023-10-25 10:46:20
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