Dominic Thiem aims to play less tournaments but win more matches

Austrian tennis star Dominic Thiem now hopes to play less tournaments but win more matches so that helps him to keep a good form. 

Thiem, ranked at No. 4 in the word, has played only a total of four tournaments this year. 

After a two-month absence, Thiem returned to the court this week at the Madrid Masters. 

"Yeah, I plan to play less tournaments. I hope that I still play a lot of matches, no? If I play less tournaments, but play well there, it still means a lot of matches," Thiem said after his quarterfinal win over John Isner.

"But I think that I just need little bit time off from time to time to regroup, to resettle. I think everybody does it. I mean, when I was 21, 22, my first years on tour, or 23, I also played week after week. You can deal with it, no? Now, with all the years of experience, I think I'm also able to play well after as long a break as I could see here now."

Thiem found a way to beat Isner 

Thiem didn't have a single break point in the first set against Isner but then claimed one break in each of the following two sets to create a comeback against the American. 

"I think it's comparable, well, to a goalkeeper in a penalty. If he places it well, if it has the right speed, there's just no time to react. You either have to guess or hope that he's missing the first serve. It's just pure luck actually to return it. It's like a 50/50 chance. That's why it's so, so tough," Thiem said of Isner's serve. 

"It's not only the first serve, it's the second as well, which has such a high bounce. Well, you go close, return it, which is unbelievable tough, especially here on clay in altitude, or you go five, six meters back behind the baseline. He has a lot of time to come in the net.

"It's just incredibly tough to be a returner against him."

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/3vTlH8a