Dominic Thiem: Vienna player field got unreal after Novak Djokovic signed up to play

Austrian tennis superstar Dominic Thiem has underlined that the 2020 Vienna player field is extremely strong and it will be a hard task to win it all at the tournament which is set to feature world No. 1 Novak Djokovic. 

Thiem, who achieved his life goal of winning it all in Vienna last year after beating Diego Schwartzman in the final, says winning back-to-back titles in Vienna is achievable but it will be extremely hard. 

Thiem, seeded at No. 2 in the Vienna draw, was handed a tough opener at the tournament as he is set to meet 2014 US Open runner-up Kei Nishikori in the first round. 

"It’s always special to start as a defending champion at a tournament, but this year is unreal, the whole draw,” Thiem said, per the ATP website. “It was strong and then Novak arrived and it got unreal even [more]. [It is] probably the best [ATP] 500 tournament ever. Defending the title is not mission impossible, but almost.”

Winning Vienna meant so much to Thiem 

Thiem, who is enjoying a career-high ranking of No. 3 in the world, claimed his maiden Grand Slam title at this past US Open after coming back from two sets down to beat Alexander Zverev in the final.

"I would say of course after the US Open that’s (Vienna title) still the biggest title of my career,” Thiem said. “[It is] probably one of the most emotional ones as well because I’ve been here since I was a four or five-year-old kid every year as a spectator who didn’t understand tennis, then as a spectator who was super interested in tennis.

"From one year to another all of a sudden [I was] a player qualifying then [in the] main draw with a wild card, main draw directly, first time seeded. Everything that can happen in a tennis career happened here in Vienna for me and then to win the title in 2019, a childhood dream came true.”

Thiem fought hard to make it all the way in Vienna last year as in three of his five matches played at the tournament last year he had to come back from a set down.

"I think back almost every day to that because every match was sold out, [it was a] tremendous atmosphere,” Thiem said. “Three of the five matches were three-setters, [it was] really dramatic as well.”

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/3ot9Zyo