Dominic Thiem played one of his best matches of the season at the 2023
Monte-Carlo Masters, defeating French veteran Richard Gasquet 6-1, 6-4 to advance to the second round of the ATP Masters Series event.
Thiem secured his first ATP Masters level win since 2021 and only his fourth on the tour in 2023.
Speaking to the media after the match Thiem mentioned that he can now hit the ball without any worries about his wrist - the injury that had forced him to stay off the tour for nine months since June 2021:
“Well, it was not the victory itself but more the way I played, which
makes me think positive. There were signs of or some good signs already
last week in Estoril. Now I improved even more. The shots are getting way better. I have the feeling that I can
go full power for many, many shots again with the wrist. There is no
restriction anymore. Now the goal is to put everything together, because
there is way more to tennis, way more things required to play good
matches than to just be able to hit full. That’s the goal right now.”
Thiem continued:
“(This) was the first match since a very long time which I was
starting up, not down, probably even the first match of the year where I
was not starting with a break down or even but where I was starting
going ahead, which felt very good. Then I played it through until the
end and was good.”
Also adding:
“I have the feeling that the shots are there, the power is there like
before, but I was using it wrong. I was not using it in the right way,
but there is full trust again in the wrist, full trust again in the
forehand. Some positive signs happened already in Estoril, and today I
had the feeling that I was doing from time to time good damage with both
forehand and backhand.”
