Dominic Thiem’s woes continue: What can he do?
After a showing at the final at Roland Garros, Thiem’s form has seen a downswing, losing in the early rounds of all the tournaments he’s entered since. With a potential injury scare and the US Open coming up soon, can Thiem improve his form or should he be resting for the post US Open hardcourt season?
Weird trajectory, kinks in the armour
Thiem’s trajectory so far has been puzzling. After his loss to Yuichi Sugita at Halle, Thiem lamented about how he should’ve skipped a warm-up grass tournament like Rafa did. He then withdrew midway in his 1st round match at Wimbledon against Marcos Baghdatis.
Instead of preparing for the hard court season that begins at Washington, Thiem contested in the smaller clay events, losing early in both Hamburg and Kitzbuhel. He also lost in his first match at the Rogers Cup against Tsitsipas.
One of the biggest problems in his game so far has been his struggle to transition from clay. His long winding and grinding style of play works brilliantly on clay. However, the same can’t be said about other surfaces, particularly grass. His long backswing in both his forehand and backhand leaves him with lesser time to hit the ball. A player like Djokovic will have a field day with Thiem since Novak takes the ball on the rise.
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Injury issues and what’s next
Thiem withdrew from his first round match in Wimbledon because of a back injury. He seemed to bounce back quickly from it, contesting at Hamburg a few weeks later. To make things worse, there’s been rumours that Thiem might be dealing with a knee injury. As of this article’s publishing, Thiem has not withdrawn from Cincinnati.
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Some of the technical issues in his game need to be fixed as soon as possible. His long winding groundstrokes are a disaster on any surface outside of clay. He needs to reduce the backswing significantly, while also making sure that he doesn’t play too passively while returning, which has been a consistent issue for Thiem.