Before falling 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 to fifth-seeded Andrey Rublev in the first round of the Australian Open on Tuesday, Dominic Thiem said he was pleased with his performance. However, he suffered an abdominal injury, which took the wind out of his sails.
Before falling 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 to fifth-seeded Andrey Rublev in the first round of the Australian Open on Tuesday, Dominic Thiem said he was pleased with his performance. However, he suffered an abdominal injury, which took the wind out of his sails.
When Thiem won the U.S. Open in 2020, he broke the Big Three’s stranglehold on Grand Slam titles. However, in 2021, he suffered a wrist injury that kept him out of the game for months, and since then, he has struggled to get back to the same level.
Until he injured an abdominal muscle while serving in the second set, the 29-year-old Austrian said he was “happy with that performance” against Rublev.
Thiem explained to reporters, “The sun was – I was in a difficult position to serve. So I completely changed the toss and something happened after at the abs or at the ribs.”
“It’s just a little strain or inflammation. It’s not the best time and it happened in the middle of the second set, but it’s what it is.”
Rublev is a top-five seed in this tournament, so even if I were extremely fit. I don’t think I could defeat him just now. even if I were completely confident. It will be quite difficult to defeat him with an issue like his abs. It would be quite challenging.
However, Thiem is optimistic that he will regain his form in 2020. After a difficult year in which he struggled to win matches on the second-tier Challenger Tour.
It started out much more difficult than I had anticipated. Additionally, I was playing much worse than I had anticipated, making the return difficult,” Thiem stated.
The championship game was approaching, but as the year came to an end, things changed. I did fairly well there.