Miami Mystery: Thiem Is 1-9 in 2023

While players like John Isner, Feliciano Lopez, Ivo Karlovic, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Paolo Lorenzi, Stan Wawrinka have been able to compete into their mid 30s and beyond, for some inexplicable reason Dominic Thiem can no longer win matches even though he’s just 29. Why the former Grand Slam champion is now essentially an ATP trialhorse is a mystery.

Thiem, the 2020 US Open champion and top 5 juggernaut, lost again yesterday at Miami Open to Lorenzo Sonego 76 62. Thiem’s match record for 2023 is now a disastrous 1-9, the only win coming in Buenos Aires vs world no. 51 Alex Molcan 76 63. Thiem’s losses this year were not exactly to a murderer’s row of ATP players – the Austrian lost to Varillas, Sonego, Coric, Gojo, Rublev, Kwon, Monteiro, Garin and Mannarino. The heartbreaking losses to Monteiro (Rio) and Mannarino (Indian Wells) were both 67 in the third.

Thiem has been working hard to fight his way back to elite status, he hired fitness guru Duglas Cordero last month to improve and sharpen his movement, cardio and agility. But nothing seems to be working for the former world no. 3, who two years ago suffered a right wrist injury in June 2021.

Back in 2019 and 2020 Thiem achieved a stunning 9-3 match record vs. Federer, Nadal and Djokovic. Thiem and Andy Murray are the only two players with at least five wins vs. each of the “Big Three.”

But now in 2023 Thiem can’t get out of the first round of any ATP tournament.

Against Sonego, Thiem didn’t look bad by any means, but his once vaunted baseline supremacy was missing and it was Sonego’s superior firepower that made the difference. It reminded me of the great Middleweight champion boxer Marvelous Marvin Hagler, who lost a fraction of timing and accuracy in the final years of his career. His punches did not connect at the same percentages and he was no longer the same extraordinary force. His opponent in two title fights four years apart (1981 in Chicago, 1984 in New York), Mustafa Hamsho revealed this observation. “He missed a lot of punches in our second fight,” said Hamsho.

Precisely why Thiem has fallen so far off the ATP radar is anyone’s guess. At 29 he should still be in his prime. Perhaps he overtrained as a junior and his early ATP days and all the mileage has caused him to lose that critical fraction of speed, timing, leg bounce, anticipation, power and confidence. Maybe Thiem lost a fraction of his focus and desire to be the best during the injury hiatus and during that time out of competition, the rest of the ATP passed him by. And once you lose it sometimes it never comes back, just ask Jack Sock, Mark Philippoussis, Gaston Gaudio, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Michael Chang, Kei Nishikori, Bjorn Borg.

I asked former ATP pro Sander Groen for his take on Thiem’s slump? “His game requires a lot of rhythm, confidence and matches which he lost all of during the injury. It took him years to build it up and it will take years again. His game is based on hard work, he has no natural talent at all.”

Thiem is ranked 106 now and one thing is for certain – he will continue to work harder and harder to regain his status as an ATP champion, a distinction he achieved by winning seventeen ATP singles titles and over $29m in career prize money.

adidas · ATP · Dominic Thiem · Head · Lorenzo Sonego · Miami Open · US Open

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