Thiem falls in Gstaad semi-final, but confirms his rebirth on the circuit

Last year was an emotional journey for Dominic Thiem (274th). A wrist injury sidelined him for a long time, leaving him with no chance of defending his US Open title or keeping his place among the top players in the rankings. The worst, yes, came later and it was that once the Austrian returned to the tracks, the results didn’t come either. He added seven consecutive defeats in the first round and declared himself mentally sunk. This until now.

And it is that despite the defeat in the semi-final of Gstaad against Berrettini (15th), Thiem marked his rebirth on the circuit. It was first at the beginning of the month, where in Salburzgo managed to break the streak of three months without victories beating Filip Misolic (194th). A victory without importance in the classification, but for the first three world, it was a weight on the shoulders.

After that came the best, as in the last two weeks Dominic managed to overcome rounds and go one-on-one with rivals who destroyed him a few months ago without a problem. During his time at the Swedish Open and Gstaad, he managed to beat players like Emil Ruusuvuori (42nd), Roberto Bautista Agut (19th) and Hugo Gaston (59th).

This brought not only total happiness to the player, but also to his coach, Nicolás Massú. The two-time Olympic medalist accompanied Thiem through this process, always showing confidence that his pupil would manage to overcome the bad moment. This week, broadcast cameras showed him beaming with victories, confident he can take the plunge on the North American tour, where he will surely receive invites to play the Masters 1000 and the final major of the season.

Of course, he will have to continue to reinforce certain moves if he wants to be able to be a main player in the events to come, since today he had no chance in his duel in the semi-finals in Gstaad. The rival was one of the toughest who could touch him today, Mateo Berrettini. The Italian is in one of the best moments of his career and helped by the height of the Swiss city (more than 1000 meters above sea level) he seems practically invincible. Thiem had a sub-30% win percentage with second serve and ended up falling 6-1, 6-4.

But despite the loss, the feelings are still positive for the 2020 US Open champion. He returned to the semi-finals of a professional tournament after 14 months of regret, being the last we saw him in this case in the distant Masters 1000 in Madrid in 2021. One of the last events he was able to compete in before his wrist injury.

They have been long since then. A period of suffering and learning, where Massú supported him constantly. Indeed, last week in Sweden, he made a comment about his coach. “It’s very good to have someone by your side who has this experience in this type of championship. said Dominic.