2016 Mercedes Cup...ATP 250...Stuttgart, Germany

[stotty]

I didn't get to see him play this week. How was his court position? That was the biggest weakness I saw in his game in Australia. Although his strong enough to hit through it.

It was better on the whole from the bits that I saw. I was surprised how well he adapted. It still could be better but not bad for someone who has played so little on grass. His game is suited to it in many ways. He likes to blitz winners. Stuttgart is quick grass so he was able to do it to good effect. Thiem and Kyrgios could fair well at Wimbledon if the get it together.

[klacr]

With his win in Stuttgart, Dominic Thiem becomes the 29th player in Open era to win titles on 3 different surfaces in same year.

Federer has achieved that feat 7 times. 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2015.

Back to Thiem, what's just as impressive as that this season, he is 19-1 in deciding sets in 2016.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[don_budge]

The Rise of Dominic Thiem...

Absolutely the real deal, the only question mark was faster surfaces, and look what he's done this week, and the caliber and variety of players he has beaten. Compare to last year's grass season, massive improvement.

I haven't read the news in the "interesting links" thread but I intend to. Right after I write this post. It seems there is another "New Kid on the Block" and his name is Dominic Thiem. He lost to Andy Murray last night 6-4, 3-6, 6-3. It was a decent match but the only thing really lacking was a dogfight for the third set. I would have liked to have seen a bit more fight...something on the side of primal. But that's ok. It is modern tennis and it went according to script...just like Big Time Wrestling. Andy brushed him aside to advance against Marion Cilic...back on the tour after a much needed rest. Or was it a suspension.

Berdych made it past Janowicz. As I hoped he would. Consistency wins out against the flashy, erratic style of Janowicz.

Glad to see don_budge bring up Dominic Thiem. The young Austrian may be on the short list for stars of tomorrow. Austria can look to the future instead of relying on the past (Thomas Muster). Here's a quick story on Thiem from ATP's website. Worth a read and talks about his change from two hands to one hand on the backhand side.

http://www.atpworldtour.com/News/Ten...row-Thiem.aspx

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

As I mentioned we have been discussing the rise of Dominic Thiem for a couple of years now. I made the first mention of him on the forum in February of 2014. I first wrote about Thiem when I saw him play against Andy Murray in Rotterdam back in 2014. The thing that strikes me about what I wrote about him initially is the lack of a "dogfight" mentality when push came to shove...in the third set against Murray.

Much water has gone under the bridge since then and young Dominic has become a household word on this forum as everyone starts to get on the bandwagon. It's natural in such a culture. The rule of thumb more and more is one of conformity. Belonging to a clique. It's understandable. It’s important to agree...or disagree. Without Roger Federer this is going to get tedious as the herd tries to cook up some interest.

Thiem has obviously made a lot of progress. He has matured a lot and his game has only become a bigger version of what it was two years ago. You have to be careful when you try to project these guys as the next be-all and end-all. The truth of the matter is that not a whole lot has changed about Thiem except that he has matured and just perhaps the competition is slowly starting to erode and become even further diluted.

Even as we speak the top ten in tennis is conceivably short a couple of the players that are listed at #'s 3 and 4. Roger Federer doesn't appear to be in top form at all and Rafael Nadal is set to miss Wimbledon as he goes into drug rehab or wherever he goes when he disappears from the tour for extended periods of time. Don't forget that the rest of the crew is aging and it is only a matter of Thiem before these guys start dropping in droves. All of them are reaching that threshold point of thirty years old and none of them show any signs of being reborn as anything other than backcourt players. We have lost players such as Juan Martin Del Potro and Robin Söderling to further dilute the talent pool. What you have is a giant sucking sound as the professional game of tennis has reached a culmination point and it doesn't really appear to be any viable solutions coming down the pipe.

This was made clear to me...as if I didn't already realize it years ago...at a major tennis equipment conference in London last year when the question was posed "Where is the “next” coming from?". The room was so silent you could have heard a pin drop. Much is being ballyhooed about the "Next Generation" of which Dominic Thiem may be the head of the class but it doesn't look to me as if there will be enough substance to sustain the game on a decent level for the next several years.

Dominic Thiem is a fine player and one of the best coming down the pipes...if not the best. I can see him giving all of the players a run for their money in the next couple of years. Certainly Novak Djokovic is only one nagging injury from being caught from behind by a young and hungry wolf like Thiem. The same can be said of Andy Murray. All of them. They are reaching a vulnerable point in their careers. Most of these guys aren't that hungry either...they are fat cats at the top of the pinnacle and at a certain point it must get tough to go out of the hotel room to go and face the music against a up and comer such as Thiem. Thiem is bound to be the recipient of a weakened field.

I like Thiem and I like him a lot. His one hand backhand is nice to see and it is almost "Walrinkian" in size now. His forehand is standard issue huge based on the prerequisite ATP #3 or whatever it is these days. I like the serve very much as the breadth of his backswing has expanded in the last couple of years to deliver one of the bigger kicks on second serve we have seen as of late. The approach and volley game...the serve and volley game? The jury is still out and this tournament in Stuttgart, Germany is perhaps a premature evaluation of his ability on a slick grass court. But the thing is...what is there to compare it to? That match with Roger? Don't kid yourself...Roger is only 70% or so, he is far from the peak of his powers and he appears to be injured as well.

It just so happens that I actually watched Thiem in a good deal of this tournament and what I saw was some play that is perhaps not quite as good as some are making it out to be. Sure he went to the net some. He won the tournament besides. But what was the competition...Sam Groth for all of his gargantuan serve is ranked #91 in the world. Mikeal Youzney has only recently been resurrected from near death on the tour. The aging injured Federer? Philip Kohlschreiber? One note regards the match with Kohlschreiber was the difficulty Thiem had in serving out the second set...he really struggled and was actually a bit lucky getting the proverbial horse in the barn. I don't know...the field wasn't that tough. Traditionally speaking. From years of experience and observation it appears to be watered down. Kohlschreiber is ranked in the neighborhood of #25 in the world.

Thiem is currently ranked #7 in the world but how did he get there? Ok...he has seven titles to his name at this point and all of them except for one are ATP 250 events. He has one ATP 500 event where the field was how should I say...less than stellar. In the finals he beat a guy named Bernard Tomic who be without question one of the most suspect competitors on the tour. Tomic is always ready to throw in the towel when things get a bit dicey. Career wise Thiem is 5-15 against Top Ten players. This year he is 4-6...and that is with two wins over an aging and ailing Roger Federer. One of his wins is against David Ferrer who has had a lot of losses recently as he makes his way down the ladder. His other Top Ten victim? Rafael Nadal when several other players were getting the best of him.

Take a look here at his activity from the ATP website...it’s quite impressive to be sure but the case might just be made that the field is definitely watered down. But even so Thiem really starts to evidence a capacity for mopping up on the players he should be mopping up on.

http://www.atpworldtour.com/en/players/dominic-thiem/tb69/player-activity

But we'll see...we'll just wait and see. At least I will. There is a little venue coming up in a couple of weeks called Wimbledon and you cannot really rule Thiem out as one of the dark horses. But the thing is he is going to run into some big cannons out there in best of five and some of those little chinks in his armor just might begin to glare a bit. Furthermore young Dominic has made somewhat of a target of himself now that he has reached the Top Ten. Everyone now has extra incentive to start gunning for him.

All that being said...for me it is almost like a funeral. Watching tennis these days. Particularly when watching a desperate Roger Federer trying to PREPARE himself for Wimbledon. This year he has had none of the usual meticulous preparation that was a staple of his past.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30UuyFbCNXk

Dominic Thiem has emerged as a player to watch. One of his great strengths is in his coach. This somewhat unorthodox personality has done a superb job with his protege. Physically Dominic looks to very imposing at 6' 1" tall and 180 pounds. It is the perfect size of a champion. His results are getting more and more consistent. This is one of the most important hallmarks of a champion. He is able to right the ship somewhat when he is not on his A game. He does have a bit of that "dogfight" in him when it gets down to it. He will need a lot of this. He is showing a lot of maturity as his rankings climb. The problem that I have with his rise...is the fall of the rest of the game.