MIAMI TENNIS RUNS COMES TO AN END FOR DOMINIC THIEM, BUT NOT BEFORE GETTING BACK ON TRACK BY RICKY DIMON

Written by: Staff on 2nd April 2015

MIAMI TENNIS RUNS COMES TO AN END FOR DOMINIC THIEM, BUT NOT BEFORE GETTING BACK ON TRACK BY RICKY DIMON

epa04687847 Dominic Thiem of Austria in action against Adrian Mannarino of France during a fourth round match at the Miami Open tennis tournament on Key Biscayne, Miami, Florida, USA, 31 March 2015. EPA/ERIK S. LESSER |

His slump–albeit a brief one–could be easily explained. The 21-year-old had to fulfill an offseason commitment to the Austrian army, so his November and December were hardly like those months for any other professional tennis player. Moreover, long-time training partner Ernests Gulbis split from fellow coach Gunther Bresnik early this year. That threw a wrench into Thiem’s team and perhaps put another dent his progress.

He lost both of his matches during the Australian summer and won back-to-back matches at just one of his first seven tournaments in 2015. That included a first-round upset loss to James Duckworth in Indian Wells and a second-round exit in a Challenger event at the hands of Aljaz Bedene.

But with plenty of match practice under his belt and perhaps feeling comfortable at a tournament where he excelled last year, Thiem finally got on track at the Miami Open. The world No. 52’s quarterfinal run came to end on Wednesday with a 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 setback against Andy Murray, but not before Thiem took out Diego Schwartzman, Feliciano Lopez, Jack Sock, and Adrian Mannarino.

As usual, Thiem blogged about all of his performances on Facebook–so at long last he had consistently positive things to write.

After beating Lopez: “It was a very important win for me, my game has improved a lot and I think it was also a nice match to watch. I am very happy and in some way relieved, that everything went so well today. It’s balsam for my soul!”

Dominic Thiem of Austria in action against Andy Murray of Britain during a quarterfinal round match at the Miami Open tennis tournament on Key Biscayne, Miami, Florida, USA, 01 April 2015. EPA/ERIK S. LESSER

After beating Sock: “It was a good match, I served good and it was quite nice to watch to I guess. I went on court very concentrated.”

After beating Mannarino: “It was a pretty long and intense match. The first set was good, the second a little carelessness cost me. I was a break down (in the third), but fought back by playing my best tennis. I am so excited for my fist quarterfinal at a [big] event.”

A Masters 1000 semifinal will have to wait, as Murray got the best of Thiem for a second time in their second career meeting. The underdog played a near-flawless first set and saved a break point while successfully serving it out, but Murray took control when he broke Thiem at 5-4 in the second. From there it was mostly one-way traffic.

“Before this week I would have given a lot for the quarterfinals but now, of course, I’m a little bit disappointed especially [because] I won the first set,” Thiem reflected. “I played a good match. I will leave Miami feeling positive and with a good feeling for the clay-court season.”

It was especially important for Thiem to gain confidence prior to European clay, because a decent chuck of his ranking points come from an impressive streak in 2014. He reached third rounds in Barcelona and Madrid, both times as a qualifier.

Ricky contributes to 10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand.

Topics: Dominic Thiem, Miami Open 2015, Miami tennis, Ricky Dimon, Tennis News

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10sBalls_com says:

April 2, 2015 at 9:49 am

-@MiamiOpenTennis RUNS COMES TO AN END FOR @ThiemDomi, BUT NOT BEFORE GETTING BACK ON TRACK BY @Dimonator- http://t.co/XJZrTarEil #MiamiOpen