Thiem highlights positives after Madrid Open saying - "I'm on the right track"

Dominic Thiem's run at the Madrid Open ended in the semifinals at the hands of Alexander Zverev but the Austrian is overall happy with his performances.

It was the first event for Thiem since the Dubai Tennis Championships and the Austrian did not disappoint. He secured wins over Giron, De Minaur and Isner who is always tricky in higher altitudes. Dominic admitted in the post-match press conference that he did better than expected:

“It was a way better result than I expected. Playing-wise and physically-wise, I expected to be in decent shape. But, of course, there are still many things to improve just to keep all intensity for all the week, day in, day out."

The solid result increased Thiem's confidence of things working out despite the obvious need for improvement which he also spoke about :

“Of course, some of the strokes, they need a little improvement. But I'm very optimistic that every week I'm playing now it's going to improve. Especially for the confidence, it was important to get a great result here. I'm happy that I think I'm on the right track.”

Thiem was once again asked about his high-profile break from tennis to which he responded:

“I think the pandemic played a little part of it definitely because I think it's mentally a little bit more demanding to be in a bubble, to play in front of empty seats. But the main reason was that I won the first major [US Open], that I reached basically my lifetime goal. So, of course, it's tough to just continue like before."

Asked about the goals moving forward he simply highlighted the need to improve and play better than in Madrid:

“Of course, there are many things to improve for next week and then for the weeks after, as well. Just try to get to Rome, get some good practices in there, then hopefully play even better than here in Madrid.”