Dominic Thiem Reveals How His Training Went During the Unexpected Extended Off-Season

Austrian tennis star Dominic Thiem has completed six grueling weeks of pre-season training and will head to Australia next Thursday, determined and fiercely driven to lay claim to his second Grand Slam title at the Melbourne Park.

Dominic Thiem will lead Austria’s challenge in the ATP Cup in Brisbane

Having come close at last year’s Australian Open where he made the final and the French Open where he fell at the quarters, Thiem finally broke his Grand Slam jinx at the US Open.

He also made the title round in the elite, season-ending ATP Finals in London before falling to Russian Daniil Medvedev.

The taste of Grand Slam glory has only whetted the Austrian’s appetite for more Major titles going into the new season.

And if his pre-season training is any indication, Thiem means business and would be keen to convert those quarter-final and semi-final appearances into titles.

It is understood that Thiem would head straight to Brisbane where he would lead his country’s challenge in the ATP Cup. He would then proceed to Melbourne for the Australian Open.

“Been on a vacation a little longer than usual”: Thiem

Opening up on his pre-season training in an interview with Sky Sports Austria, Thiem said, “I’ve been on vacation a little longer than usual. The training went well. For the first two, two-and-a-half weeks, I only did fitness.”

A video was recently out on Twitter, showing the Austrian going through the gears during an intense training session under the watchful eyes of his physiotherapist Alex Stober.

Thiem hopeful 2021 season won’t be cut short by pandemic

The footage showed Thiem taking carefully calibrated jumps and making a perfect landing, underlining his fitness going into the new season.

Thiem said he was hopeful that the 2021 tennis season won’t be cut short by the pandemic like last year. 

“I hope that apart from tennis, a certain normalcy will return in 2021, that maybe in summer or autumn 2021 you will have a reasonably normal life again,” Thiem said.

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The Austrian signed off the 2020 tennis season ranked number three and will be looking to prove his credentials as the one to challenge the Big Three’s hold on Grand Slam titles.