Two-time Roland Garros champion Dominic Thiem reflects on early Paris exit

Despite a challenging five-set loss to Pedro Cachin in the first round of Roland Garros on Monday, Dominic Thiem is eager to keep up his resurgence. Thiem started his recovery from a wrist injury against Cachin over a year ago. The Austrian thinks his situation has significantly improved.

“There’s no comparison. Back then I was not ready to play. I shouldn’t have even played. Today I was definitely ready to play, to fight. That’s what I did obviously,” Thiem said. “I didn’t start well at all. How should I say, I was very tight. What I was expecting, I had very, very good practice sets. but most of the times in the first real match it’s not that easy, and that’s what happened. I was fighting back great, starting to play a bit better. And then, yeah, I missed to do the last step, to reward myself, to give myself a chance to play a second round maybe a little bit looser. I was not able to do it.”

During Thiem’s post-match press conference, a reporter recalled the Austrian remarking that he had transitioned from “tennis heaven” to “tennis hell” after losing to Rafael Nadal in a Roland Garros final. According to him, his descent from the peak of the sport to the very bottom owing to his wrist injury felt identical.

Dominic Thiem is upbeat despite his second-round exit at Roland Garros

“It was exactly like that, from tennis heaven to tennis hell, and now hopefully back to tennis heaven. It was really, really great experiences like in the previous years, and now also it’s a very good challenge what I’m facing right now,” Thiem said. “It’s tough obviously, but I’m really convinced with the way that I’m on right now, especially the last six weeks. That’s when I started to be really into my career again, really push myself every day to the limit. But, on the same hand, six weeks is not enough yet to make a deep run here. I have to continue working like that. Yeah, today I failed to reward myself. Hopefully, the next tournament I can do it.”

Although the 29-year-old lost in Paris, the two-time finalist at Roland Garros is optimistic about the future. The Pepperstone ATP Rankings’ No. 92 player is committed to raising his ranking. “[It was] changing perspectives again and then changing my attitude again towards the game from thinking about or thinking of giving 100 percent, but not really [doing] it, to really [doing] it again. That’s what changed,” Thiem said. “The last six weeks were really good. But, yeah, obviously it’s not enough yet to play well, to play well in a tournament like that. But, yeah, again, I feel that I’m on the right track again. Today I just failed to reward myself.”