Gunter Bresnik: Dominic Thiem rejected wildcards into Sydney and Auckland
Austrian tennis star Dominic Thiem has rejected wildcards into next weeks Sydney International and ASB Classic in Auckland as he wants to spend next week training at Melbourne Park, according to his coach Gunter Bresnik.
The Austrian suffered an early exit at this weeks Qatar ExxonMobil Open as he lost to French Pierre-Hugues Herbert in the Doha first round. Thiem, ranked at No. 8 in the world, also didnt shine at last weeks Mubadala World Tennis Championship.
The world No. 8 was beaten in all three matches he played at the Abu Dhabi exhibition. Thiem has played twice in Sydney and once in Auckland so far in his career. The Austrian made the Sydney round-of-16 in 2016 before he reached the quarter-final at the tournament a year later.
The 25-year-olds lone Auckland appearance came in 2015 — when he was defeated in the first round.
Insights from coach Gnter Bresnik on #Thiems start to the 2019 season: After his R1 loss in Doha, he was offered a WC for ??Auckland ??Brisbane, but chose to go to Melbourne for training instead.
You cant tell whats the smarter move here, its essentially a coin flip. pic.twitter.com/zsMeuHh2ZU Lukas Zahrer (@ZaraLuk) January 3, 2019
And it wouldnt be Thiem had he not been sick for a few days during his pre-season camp.
Nothing tragic, but we couldnt train everything we would have wanted, says Bresnik. Lukas Zahrer (@ZaraLuk) January 3, 2019 Thiem will certainly be motivated to finally make a deep run at the Australian Open.
The Austrian, who debuted at Melbourne Park in 2014, is set to make his sixth consecutive appearance at the opening Grand Slam of the season. The 25-year-old has never made it past the round-of-16 at Melbourne Park. Thiems last two Australian Open campaigns ended in the round-of-16.
The Austrian missed on a great chance to reach the Australian Open quarter-final last year as he suffered a surprise round-of-16 loss to Tennys Sandgren. Also read: Brisbane Tournament Director reflects on Rafael Nadal withdrawal
