Dominic Thiem to play Challenger tournament on clay after Roland Garros

Dominic Thiem has been offered a wild card at an ATP Challenger clay-court tournament scheduled to take place after this year's Roland Garros.

The draw for the clay-court major has already been released. Thiem will face Bolivian clay-court specialist Hugo Dellien in the first round. At his pomp and in full health, Thiem would have been a favorite to win that match on paper.

But on current form, it is tough to side with the Austrian after a winless start to the season. His confidence has taken a hit despite maintaining positive sensations about his season following his recovery from wrist injury.

After the draw was made, Thiem made an interesting decision choosing to prolong his clay-court stay instead of hitting the grass-court season as it is the case with most players ranked inside the Top 100 and competing at Tour level.

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Dominic Thiem to use protected ranking to enter Wimbledon

There's only a limited time to prepare for the third Grand Slam of the season. It appears that Thiem chose a different approach this season. Thiem will, therefore, travel to Italy to compete in the Perugia Challenger

Although previous reports stated that the former US Open champion would enter Wimbledon via protected ranking, it's not clear if he will play the grass-court Grand Slam.

For now, it looks like he is uninterested in preparing for the tournament and would rather continue in the clay-court season. Certainly, he will be the biggest favorite at the event in Italy, and if he fails to do well in Paris, the tournament might kick-start his comeback.

But the concern for Thiem and his camp is that he has won one set in six matches. He has only played clay-court tennis all year, and while the general consensus is that it is his favorite surface, it is an unforgiving surface for the body and certainly the wrist. Let's see, if Thiem can turn his season around in the next few weeks, starting with Roland Garros.

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