By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Wednesday May 19, 2021
Dominic Thiem has just six clay-court matches under his belt as he prepares to take the court in Lyon on Thursday, where he will face Cameron Norrie in second-round action. The Austrian, who returned to the tour in Madrid two weeks ago after six weeks off, says he is a little bit behind schedule in terms of finding his best form ahead of Roland-Garros.
“If I compare my preparation this year to the previous years it's definitely a little bit worse this year, I don't need to lie about that, but I still see my chances to play well there and hopefully work myself into the tournament,” Thiem told Tennis Now at his pre-tournament press conference on Wednesday.
But it doesn’t mean that Thiem, who will be the No.4 seed at Roland-Garros and will enter the draw with a stellar track record over the last five years in Paris, won’t be able to make a run at the title.
"Probably I'm also not playing as good as in 2018, but I'm also a better tennis player now than I was in 2016 and 2017 and I still made semis these two years," Thiem said. "As I said I tried to practice well, to work hard, to hopefully get some matches here in Lyon, then I will work on myself in the tournament.”
Thiem reached the final at Roland-Garros in 2018 and 2019, and the semifinals in 2017 and 2017. Last year he suffered his earliest loss since 2015 when he fell to Diego Schwartzman in the quarterfinals.
Thiem felt the need to disconnect from the sport after early season struggles dragged him down in March. He took six weeks off and says that part of the idea was to rediscover a hunger again.
“I didn’t practice mentally I was just very far away from tennis, not watching any tennis, just tried to get hungry again and to really look forward to being back on tour and that’s what I did,” he said, adding: “I guess everybody needs sometime to just disconnect from the job and that’s what I did and now I’m happy to be back on the tour.”
Thiem’s dream? It’s still alive, and despite being behind schedule in his preparations this spring, he still believes he can win the title in Paris. If not this year then why not the next?
“Now my dream is to win another Grand Slam title, and if I look at the results I think that the chances are biggest at the French Open probably, since I did the finals two previous years,” he said.