Dominic Thiem: Austrian tennis star on the cusp of Australian Open glory
Dominic Thiem will look to become just the second Austrian tennis player to win a major, when he takes on Novak Djokovic in the men’s singles final of the Australian Open.
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Dominic Thiem has been grand slam’s heir apparent for longer than he cares to recall.
From a front-row seat in the House of The Big Three, the Austrian has watched Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal collectively command grand slam’s centre stage for the past 15 years.
Pat Cash, who struggled to break through the sport’s glass ceiling when surrounded by Ivan Lendl, Mats Wilander, John McEnroe, Boris Becker and Stefan Edberg, knows what it is to suffer on the fringes.
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The 1987 Wimbledon champion also knows the catharsis of beating the odds – a sensation the former world No.4 says Thiem will experience in the Australian Open final against Djokovic.
“I’ve got a sneaking suspicion that Thiem is gonna win,” Cash said.
“Novak’s record here is phenomenal. The really interesting thing is that he’s navigated this really weird off-season better than anybody.
“Djokovic has played some of the best tennis I’ve literally seen a human being play.
“But I think it’s gonna be a marathon, so order some food, it’s gonna be a five or six-hour match.
“I suspect Djokovic is gonna be fresher and that could give him the edge, but there’s nothing in this.
“But I think Thiem can win this one.”
History sets out what Thiem, bidding to become only the second Austrian after 1995 French Open champion Thomas Muster to win a major, must overcome against Djokovic.
Federer (20), Nadal (19) and Djokovic (16) have amassed 55 grand slams since Federer’s 2003 Wimbledon breakthrough.
“Yeah, I mean, we are playing in tough times, we young players,” Thiem, a dual Roland Garros runner-up, said.
“We always have to beat all these unbelievable legends. But I think it's a complete different situation.
“Of course, Rafa won Paris 12 times, Nole here seven times.
“That's unbelievable achievement.
“But I try to take my experience what I made in the last two major finals and try to improve myself even more.
“I think I did that from '18 to '19 in Paris, and I tried to improve even more now.
“In this one I have the feeling that I have great experience now.
“I'm feeling that I can really keep up my level for all the two weeks, which was not the case maybe in my first Roland Garros final.
“So that's what I'm taking.”
With four wins from his past five attempts at Djokovic, Thiem has reason to believe, but the Serb’s 74-8 Melbourne Park record is forbidding.
“Yeah, it's true, I won I think more of the last encounters than he did. But I think it doesn't count so much,” Thiem said.
“It's absolutely his comfort zone here. He always plays his best tennis in Australia since many, many years. So I'm expecting that as well in the finals.
“All I can do is doing my best again, playing great tennis again, and of course take a look at the last matches we had as well in Paris and also London, try to repeat the good stuff what I did there.”
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Alexander Zverev, Thiem’s semi-final victim, says the Austrian has flattened out looping groundstrokes to become a complete player on hardcourt.
Thiem agrees.
“I think last fall in Asia, then in the indoor season, I made this huge step forward,” he said.
“I really developed my game I think in the right direction. I got more aggressive on hard courts, started to serve smarter and to return better.
“I told myself if I can be in the finals in London, the ATP Finals, why not as well in a hard court slam?
“Since then I know that I'm also playing very well on the faster surfaces.”
Like Cash, Zverev is siding with the underdog.
“He's playing the best tennis of his life,” Zverev said of Thiem.
“Yeah, I do believe that he has a chance. I do believe he's playing good enough. I wish him nothing but the best.”
Thiem last year retired in the second round when trailing Alexei Popyrin.
This year, he barely survived South Australian Alex Bolt in an epic second-rounder.
If he loses the final, he will join a small group of players to have lost their first three major deciders. The most recent is Murray.
Originally published as Dominic Thiem: Austrian tennis star on the cusp of Australian Open glory