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The Austrian’s progress has been marked of late and he will be a serious threat in the Australian Open final
When Novak Djokovic’s garrulous coach, Goran Ivanisevic, and his longtime confidant, Marian Vajda, cancelled their press conference at the last minute here on Friday, suspicions grew that the Serb was more worried than he wanted to let on about Dominic Thiem.
The defending champion, normally so open, has been seen only fleetingly since beating Roger Federer in the semi-finals on Thursday and has said nothing publicly since immediately after that match.
If Djokovic is concerned about his team giving away even the smallest detail about his preparation for Sunday’s final, he must be nervous – which may be no bad thing – or it could make him over-cautious. The young Austrian, meanwhile, will surely grow in self-belief.
They will meet for the 11th time and, while the seven-times champion is the odds-on favourite, nobody is dismissing Thiem’s chances. He has won four of their past five matches, including a tough three-setter on the hard court of the O2 Arena in London in November, and arrives in his third slam final hitting the ball with greater venom and precision than at any time in his career.
Nicolás Massú, the Chilean coach who joined up with Thiem a month before he beat Federer at Indian Wells last year, said: “I always loved his tennis. His shots, the speed of the ball, it is amazing. He’s the complete player.”
He sees Thiem taking his basic game – including the one-handed backhand fashioned by his previous coach Günter Bresnik four years ago – on to different surfaces and lifting his performance against the best players. “Reaching two slam finals [both on the clay of Roland Garros against Rafael Nadal], it helps, for sure. Sometimes it doesn’t matter which slam, because the surface changes. But the experience is important, when you play against the best players in the world.”
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