Dominic Thiem ’empty’ after achieving his life goal of winning Grand Slam
Austrian tennis star Dominic Thiem has admitted that he had lost a bit of spark for the game since winning his maiden Grand Slam title. Thiem, 27, captured his maiden Grand Slam title after beating Alexander Zverev in the US Open final last year.
Thiem achieved his life goal but at the same time he was left feeling empty. “It wasn’t too much (effort to chase my goals). I spent 15 years chasing the big goal without looking left or right,” Thiem told Der Standard, as revealed on Tennis Majors.
“As I said, I achieved it – under strange circumstances, but that’s not so important to me. In a way, some things have fallen by the wayside – the private life, dealing with other things, broadening the horizon.
You have to do something for your head, for your brain. There was only tennis. I want to change that a bit. “After (the US Open) I was in a state of euphoria, the results still matched, I was in the final of the ATP Finals in London.
But in the preparation for this season, I fell into a hole. Whether the looseness will come, we will see, I don’t know, I hope so”.
Thiem hasn’t had a great season so far
Thiem made the round-of-16 at the Australian Open, before losing in the Doha quarterfinal.
In his last tournament played, Thiem suffered a shock loss to Lloyd Harris in his Dubai opener. “I think the pandemic is an additional part of the whole (struggle). If I had won the US Open last year in normality, things would have continued normally, and I would probably also be in the state I’m in now.
When you spend your whole life chasing your one very big goal, subordinate everything to it, and then achieve it, for a while things aren’t the same as they were before. That’s normal. The problem in tennis is that it’s so fast-paced and goes on week after week,” Thiem added.
