Thiem: 'Nadal is always the biggest favorite for every clay-court title'
Dominic Thiem keeps expectations not too high following his Barcelona Open title win. In a press conference, the Austrian said: "Rafael Nadal is always the biggest favourite for every clay-court title. But for sure the French Open is probably the biggest tournament for me, I played great tennis in the last three years there, so I hope this continues there but there is first Madrid, I love that event, the conditions are really great there, I played two finals in the last three years there."
Asked how important would be to be on the top four rankings heading into the French Open, Thiem replied: "That helps for sure. I was not thinking about it but top-four seed would help for sure. It makes you not face the biggest players in the quarter-finals, it would be nice. Slams are very tough but top four seed is a great goal there."
"It was a tricky match up for me because I saw a lot of matches from Daniil in the last weeks and he was not missing any ball, so I had to think about something, and I knew that he does not like the match to last too long. He does not like my slice too much, so this was a key shot and I also made him get a bit away out of the comfort zone. I had difficulties at the beginning of the match, it was completely different from the match against Nadal but my shots were looking better and better."
Thiem will play the Madrid Open next. He lost in the final both in 2017 and 2018 respectively to Nadal and the Hamburg native Alexander Zverev.
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2We5IjT
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