Dominic Thiem was able to turn around his season in recent weeks but he remembers a time when things were quite different.
Due to a wrist injury sustained in Mallorca the previous season, the Austrian missed a significant portion of the season's opening. In the final week of March, he made a comeback in Marbella, but it took him much longer until he achieved his first victory. The Austrian lost seven matches in a row in round one, with a defeat at the French Open serving as his lowest point.
"The French Open was the absolute low point, where I can understand all the critics. It was horrible how I played there," remembered Thiem in a talk with Austrian media ahead of the Vienna Open.
The uncertainty stemmed from the fact that, following weeks of competition, it should have been easy to defeat moderately good but not particularly outstanding players but he was unable to.
"I had my doubts because before that there were a few months of full training. I saw in training that I'm far away and I can't win a set against the good guys"
He won a match at the Salzburg challenger in his first match after Roland Garros, giving him his maiden victory in the season. The following event saw him defeat Ruusuvuori for his maiden ATP Tour victory in over a year and he continued to get better with each contest. He has already been in three ATP Tour semifinals, and he intends to accomplish the same here.
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