World no. 4 Dominic Thiem reveals the importance of taking a break from Tour

There is hardly any doubt that Dominic Thiem is a class tennis player and the only one from this generation to break the jinx of winning a Grand Slam title. However, the Austrian has had a forgetful 2021 season till now.

In the current season, he was not at his best at the year’s first and only Grand Slam till now, Australian Open. Thiem reached as far as the fourth round in Melbourne and was knocked out by Bulgarian tennis star Grigor Dimitrov in straight sets. Even in the Qatar Open, he was beaten in the quarterfinals by Roberto Bautista Agut. The misery continued even at the Dubai Tennis Championships as he was defeated by South Africa’s Llyod Harris in the round of 32. So the Austrian has decided to take a break from tennis in order to find his true self.

Speaking about the break from Tour and the poor results in recent events, Thiem said, “I just didn’t do anything at all once. I just got away from it all and also watched very very little tennis – just come up with completely new ideas… Just don’t do anything for a week and don’t even think about tennis, don’t watch tennis, and then at some point, you’ll get hungry again.”

The 27-year-old revealed that he has detached himself from everything that involves tennis. He did this to concentrate on his game and also may help him hold his nerves in tight situations. Speaking about the break and its benefits Thiem said, “I think that’s the most important thing because if you take a break and then you still study results all the time or watch the tournament in Miami or whatever, I don’t think you can really get away from that, but it has to be done.”

Since the Dubai Tennis Championships, he has not featured in any other tournaments and feels that the break has given him time to reflect on the areas he was going wrong and improve on the past results. It also gave an opportunity to start afresh keeping all the negativity aside. Therefore he skipped the season’s first clay-court ATP Masters 1000 event in Monte Carlo. But his supporters need not be concerned about Thiem as he is returning to action for the ATP Serbia Open 2021.