Dominic Thiem to play Kitzbuhel in 2019 and 2020, missing Tokyo Olympics!
The world no. 5 and Indian Wells champion Dominic Thiem was forced to travel home from Miami earlier than he expected, losing in the second round to Hubert Hurkacz in straight sets. Working with his father and Gunter Bresnik just outside Vienna for two and a half hours on Monday, Thiem called the press conference and announced he is going to play the home event in Kitzbuhel in 2019 and 2020. Making a debut at the age of 17 in 2011, Thiem competed at the Generali Open seven times so far, scoring only eight wins and six of those in 2014-15 when he played in the final and the semi-final.
A year ago, Dominic suffered a tough loss in the second round against Martin Klizan and will try to improve that in the next two seasons and finally lift the trophy in front of the home fans. This also means Thiem would skip the 2020 Tokyo Olympics since it is scheduled in the same week as Kitzbuhel, choosing ATP 250 event on clay instead of chasing Olympic glory on hard courts in Asia. Dominic has never been the biggest fan of the Olympic tennis event, missing 2016 Rio Olympics as well after retiring against Kevin Anderson in the second round of Canada Masters two weeks earlier and staying away from the court until Cincinnati.
Also, Dominic has confirmed he will work with Nicolas Massu by the end of the season, saying they have forged a great team together and feeling confident and motivated after the first Masters 1000 crown at Indian Wells where he defeated Roger Federer in the final. The Austrian has been one of the best players on clay in the last couple of years, competing in six events on his beloved surface previous spring, winning the title in Lyon and losing finals in Madrid and Roland Garros, his first at Majors.
from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2Ib3JZp
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