Molded for Success: Hard-Working Austrian Dominic Thiem Continues His Rapid Rise

In the finals of the 2018 French Open, Austria’s Dominic Thiem was handed a nearly impossible task: To go out and defeat Rafael Nadal.

In Nadal’s previous 10 tries, he was 10-0. In fact, he entered the final having only lost twice in his career at Roland Garros.

Nadal would improve his record to 11-0 and would not add a third loss to his outstanding record in Paris, downing Thiem, 6-4, 6-2, 6-2.

“Physically, I enjoyed watching him more on the couch,” said Thiem jokingly after his defeat, indicating the difficulty in playing Nadal. “Of course it’s a really great thing that I made my way so far and that I was competing in a final against him. It’s a really great thing, but I am still disappointed of course. It was a final and I really wanted to win. I gave everything I had, and I’m the loser … so in the end, it’s not the best day.”

While the loss was disappointing for the seventh-ranked Thiem, the 24-year-old has a lot to take away from his run in Paris, and it will prove to be a significant stepping stone in his career.

“I’m confident that this was not my last Grand Slam final,” he said. “And that’s my biggest goal, to get into the next one, and do better than today.”

Thiem was born in Wiener Neustadt, Austria, approximately  40 miles south of Vienna, and was raised in an intense tennis environment from an early age. His father, Wolfgang, was a coach at the tennis academy of Gunter Bresnik, the famous coach who worked with the likes of Boris Becker and Patrick McEnroe, and thus Dominic’s pursuit of being a world-class athlete was underway.

From an early age, Bresnik would serve as Thiem’s coach, a relationship that still exists today, as Bresnik remains Thiem’s coach in a full-time capacity. When Thiem was just eight-years-old, Bresnik outlined a vision on how to make him into a professional player.

Bresnik described that vision in his 2006 book, The Dominic Thiem Method, where he wrote about the first time he saw Dominic play:

“I recall very well, what impressed me first about Dominic,” wrote Bresnik. “The boy could not stand quietly. Not because of being nervous or anxious, but because of the violent compulsion to play. I have never seen Dominic without a ball and a racket, even when he was sitting in the cafeteria or getting out from his grandma’s car. When waiting for a free court to play, he was hitting the wall all the time.”

Thiem’s passion made him a willing participant in Bresnik’s rigorous, and often strenuous training regimens. The coach has often been criticized for his methods which, amongst other things, included taking Thiem into the woods of the Austrian mountains and have him run back home. Despite criticism from the outside, Thiem has always stood by his coach:

“Gunter is the perfect coach for me.”

Thiem insists he doesn’t have a superior work ethic when compared to other players, but that it is just something he needs to do for himself.

“It’s fine if people see me like this, but there are really a lot of other players who are working the same amount. Otherwise they wouldn’t be that good,” Thiem told GQ’s Chloe Cooper Jones. “And there are some players who work less, obviously, but everybody is really different. I’m a player who needs to practice a lot, otherwise I don’t play well.”

Thiem was a highly regarded junior, and made his ATP Pro Tour debut in 2011 when he received wild cards into three different tournaments, including Vienna. It was in Vienna, just miles from where he grew up, where he scored his first ATP win, beating compatriot Thomas Muster.

Since his pro debut, Thiem has been on a steady rise up the ATP ranks, moving up to seventh in the world following his French Open run, maintaining a relentless work ethic that has been engrained in him since he was a child. Bresnik says that Thiem’s typical training day lasts around 12 hours, and there is nobody on ATP Tour that plays more matches. Last year, he played in 76 matches, down just a bit from the 82 he played in 2016. The French Open final was Thiem’s 44th match already in 2018.

His desire to play as many tournaments as possible is commendable, and is definitely a product of the Bresnik training method, but some believe it to be foolish as he wears himself down throughout the season. Just recently, an injured knee threatened his chances in Halle, his first tournament following the French Open.

“I played a lot of matches in the past weeks; my knee hurts a bit,” he said. “But I am used to it. It shouldn’t be a problem.”

That sort of attitude from Thiem is endearing and demonstrates his desire to fight through injuries, and not be deterred by the aches and pains. But now that he has established himself inside the Top 10, it may be time to cut down on his match schedule in order to keep himself fresh for the Masters 1000s and Grand Slam tournaments.

However, you could also make the case that Thiem’s success is a product of that rigorous training regimen and his unrelenting match schedule, as he said himself, he is the type of player who needs to be playing and practicing all the time in order to achieve the results he wants.

As we head deeper into the summer, Dominic Thiem will be looking to build off his fantastic campaign on the red clay at Roland Garros, which saw him take a major leap in his career path.

“It’s a big goal for me to play in another slam final soon,” said Thiem after his French Open final defeat. “Of course, it’s going to be a little easier then, a little bit, because it’s not going to be the first time anymore. Then hopefully I can do better than today.”

At just 24-years-old, Thiem has an incredibly bright future. He is a grinder with an unwavering desire to get better who will never be outworked by his opponent, something that gives him an immediate edge. The title of Grand Slam champion on the ATP Tour has been dominated by just a handful of players in recent years, but Thiem could be the next person to hold that distinction.

The kid who couldn’t put down a tennis racket when he was younger has used that passion to become one of the best players in the world, and it is only a matter of time before that translates into Grand Slam glory.