Tennis: extra motivation for Thiem in Rio

Roger Federer had to undergo an arthroscopy in his right knee on Wednesday. As a consequence, the 38-year-old Swiss has to cancel his planned appearances in Dubai, Indian Wells, Bogota, Miami and at the French Open. This means that regardless of the performance in Rio, Dominic Thiem will be in the top three in the world for the first time on March 2 at the latest. Thiem could make it this week or the next Monday world rankings if he at least reached the semi-finals in Rio.

Thiem is only the second Austrian after Thomas Muster, who will move into the top three individually. Most recently, Muster was in third place on May 12, 1997, before that he had been number one in the world for a total of six weeks. Muster was a year older than Thiem when he reached the top three for the first time – on June 12, 1995, immediately after his Grand Slam triumph in Paris.

“A really solid player”

“Munar is a clay court specialist, who lost many close, good games against absolute top people, especially last year”, Thiem knew exactly about the upcoming opponent. The 22-year-old would be a bit worse than he deserved in the 99th ranking. The previous two duels Thiem – Munar have been played on clay in Barcelona in the past two years, Thiem did not make a set.

“It was a close, good game,” recalled the fourth in the world ranking of the recent duel. “He is a really solid player. The match in Barcelona was really good. ”He wanted to look at that again because he played well and did the things he wanted to do against him (Munar, note) pretty well back then. “I’m in good spirits for Thursday,” concluded Thiem. The Lower Austrian is the only top 20 player in the field after the cancellation of Matteo Berrettini (ITA / ATP-8.) And Diego Schwartzman (ARG / ATP-13.).

ATP 500 tournament in Rio de Janeiro

–

–