Dominic Thiem to play Challenger during Wimbledon

Dominic Thiem elected to skip Wimbledon and it was a sensible decision as he never performed well at the event or grass in general and he will use that time to play challengers.

Thiem has been struggling immensely since making his return from a wrist injury. The return itself was a very long one because Thiem reinjured his wrist during his first comeback attempt because he rushed too soon. The 2nd time around he was much more careful opting for a longer recovery that stretched the entire come back to over a year since he last played.

He returned during the clay season but his favourite surface was not kind to him. He went 0-7 losing to many different players, some of which were rather good. The others aren't that good but the Austrian was never able to find a good rhythm or high level. That is why he opted to return in the 2nd week of Wimbledon but at the Salzburg challenger in his native country.

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Thiem said after Roland Garros:

"I have to accept it and even though it was a really painful defeat now, week after week, it’s still nothing unexpected. If I had won many matches or whatever, would have been a big surprise. So it’s painful, I’m very disappointed, but it goes on. Yeah, I’m definitely thinking to go back to Challenger level now for maybe one or two tournaments. Of course a match win would help a lot, but if I’m honest to myself, I was, in all the matches I played, still pretty far away from a win."

After Salzburg Thiem plans to play at a couple of more clay events namely Baastad, Gstaad and Kitzbuhel before turning his focus to the hard court swing in North America.

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