"People here love me a lot": Thiem feeling the love of having coach Nicolas Massu by his side at Chile Open

Dominic Thiem is in Chile where he'll play at the ATP event there and he hopes fans show up for him as he garnered many Chilean fans after hiring Nicolas Massu.

Massu is a hugely popular player in Chile due to some of his heroics on the ATP Tour and he's been Thiem's coach for a while. The duo are working hard on getting Thiem back to where he was but it's a bumpy road so far. The Austrian hopes that fans shower him with love during the coming days in Santiago.

Speaking before the event, Thiem said:

"It is very cute. The people here love me a lot because of my relationship with Nico, which is a great honor."

He added:

"I would like not to have faced a Chilean, so I could have had the public supporting me. But it is what it is, I enjoy playing here, the people are fond of me, and hopefully we can have a great atmosphere in our match on Tuesday.

On his relationship with Massu, Thiem said:

"We have had a great relationship in these four years," Dominic Thiem expressed. "We started in the best way in Indian Wells, our first year was spectacular. In the second came the US Open title, and then came some very challenging times, with my wrist injury and what it took for us to get good results."