The arrival of tennis’ big four – sorry maybe it’s five… six, seven… eight? Ah. Well, I suppose that’s the point I’m trying to make: men’s tennis is enjoying an era of unrivalled, well, rivalry. Many, many match ups are given the label ‘mouth-watering’ and to the point that we tennis fans are not only constantly drooling at the matchups we are also, quite frankly, spoiled. It is an era of tennis that can plunge anyone into reverie. When witnessing such wondrous art forms though as Djokovic skidding seamlessly from corner to corner, or Federer flowing into a forehand with such serenity, there is the forever underlying obsession with asking: who will follow? Allow me to introduce you to Dominic Thiem.
With his recent ATP title in Umag, Dominic Thiem joined David Goffin, Milos Raonic, Grigor Dimitrov and Bernard Tomic on the list of players born in the 90s who have won multiple titles in 2015. And incidentally, a further title immediately followed with a victory over Goffin in the final of Gstaad. Only in the semi-finals of the Generali Open in Kitzbuhel, was Thiem’s 10-match winning streak finally halted.
The young Austrian turned pro only in 2011 after a promising ITF junior career which saw him reach the boy’s Roland Garros Final and win the highly prestigious Dunlop Orange Bowl. Many elite juniors though, as pundits incessantly stress, struggle to make the transition to the professional game and for some time it seemed that Thiem would be the same. However, the youngster’s steady rise eventually culminated in breaking into the top 100 in 2014. It was to act as a catalyst – a motivator for further success, as only a mere five months later; he broke into the top 50. During that season he had fantastic results in ATP qualifying, as he often had to qualify, rather than being given wild cards, and he upset Grand Slam champion Stan Wawrinka in Madrid.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKbZCH9Lh2I
The rest of his rise cannot unfortunately be as simply and idyllically told by the phrase ‘and the rest is history’ though. Despite an ascent to No.36 in the world just two months later, there was then a period of relative stagnation and a brief slip to outside of the top 50. After a career of almost constant rise in the rankings – and of meteoric rise since entering the top 100 – such a slow in progression must have frustrated Thiem. This feeling was likely accentuated by the fact that Thiem was further being recognised as a serious top player, not just as a ‘prospect’, having transferred his potential into reality. It would be almost a year after entering the top 50 that the Austrian picked up his first ATP silverware. It should also be mentioned that that drop in the rankings was partially due to the fact he had to spend an off-season doing mandatory military service for his nation of Austria.
This maiden title was rewarded by a jump up to the brink of the top 30 and with it, a seeding at the Wimbledon Championships. Thiem would only reach the second round but to that he responded, to say the least encouragingly, with the aforementioned stunning 10 match winning streak. It has to be asked: would Nick Kyrgios react so well?
Ivan Lendl has described Thiem’s backhand as ‘phenomenal’. Indeed, the Austrian holds an astonishing ability to vary the spin on his backhand and forehand flanks, flattening his shots when switching it down the line and flipping the point in his favour. Although an attacking player, Thiem also possesses great athleticism and movement around the court, enabling him to be so successful on the clay. Despite his rise and this solid baseline style though, the poster boy of the ATP tours hot prospects remains to be Nick Kyrgios. Coric’s potential has also been widely publicised. With Thiem, that has seemingly not quite been the case. Why? Most likely, because Coric and Kyrgios have larger than life characters – the former particularly made some eye-catching comments when he claimed that he was the ‘best of his generation’. This is not to say that such live-wire personalities should be diluted (on the contrary, I think such characters are hugely beneficial for the game), but they should not overshadow what is, in Thiem, a lower key but equally as talented (if not more) individual who could similarly pluck up the mantle when the current elite group are gone.
Dominic Thiem may not be cut from the same cloth as the bygone wonder kids of Rafael Nadal or Boris Becker – who both won multiple grand slam titles before their twentieth birthday – but he appears to be a potential future top 10 player. And on the cusp of the top 20, he has unequivocally taken his rightful place amongst the plethora of players who are obsessed over and scrutinised by us as successors of Federer and Djokovic. It will be interesting to see whether he can retain the momentum going into the hard court season, particularly as all of Thiem’s three titles have come on clay. The Montreal Masters 1000 will certainly supply him with some testing hard court matches, but also the sufficient attention to stamp out any question marks over his versatility on other surfaces, and to definitively assert himself as the poster boy of the future of tennis.
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