Austria captain Jurgen Melzer admits Thiem isn't same player from US Open but hopeful of Davis Cup display: "I think it could be a good assessment of where he stands here"

Austria's Davis Cup captain Jurgen Melzer hopes Dominic Thiem will be able to push Austria past Croatia at the Davis Cup even though he's not at his best.

Dominic Thiem is not at his US Open level and that's rather known. However, he's still capable of some solid tennis which is the hope of Davis Cup captain Melzer. He is sure that Thiem will bring his best possible for the clash against Croatia because they won't be able to win if he doesn't do that.

He said:

"I'm really happy that Dominic is here and has agreed to play in this Davis Cup. He's had a really difficult journey over the past few years, to be honest, but you could see at the end of last year that he's getting reasonably close to where he belongs. He reached a semi-final in a 250, played a good tournament in Vienna."

Melzer added:

"But of course he's not quite where he was when he won the US Open, there's no doubt about that. However, I think it could be a good assessment of where he stands here. We're definitely not the favorites before this international match, but playing in a team is always different than standing alone on the court. So I'm really looking forward to seeing how he handles the situation. When he trained here, everything looked normal and fine. So I think we'll see a good Dominic this weekend."