METZ, September 26, 2016

After finishing runner-up to Lucas Pouille in Sunday’s final of the Moselle Open in Metz, Dominic Thiem took a wild card into this week’s inaugural Chengdu Open to kick off the Asian swing. This is the second week in a row and fourth time this season that the Austrian youngster is the top seed.

“Before Wimbledon I played a lot of matches but afterwards it was a normal amount of tournaments I competed in,” Thiem told Tennis TourTalk after his final in Metz. “Chengdu will give me rhythm for Asia and will help me to overcome the jet lag in order to be ready for the big tournaments over there with a lot of points to win.”

The Austrian youngster left France on Monday and still has an eye on the ATP Race to London. “It has never been a goal, but it would be a dream to qualify for the ATP World Tour Finals. If I make it, it will be great, otherwise I will enjoy the off-season a bit earlier.”

Thiem is number seven in the Emirates ATP Race to London standings with four titles in six finals. Along with Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka, his four titles is the secondmost on the ATP World Tour this season, trailing only Novak Djokovic with seven. The 23-year-old is also one of four players with at least 50 match wins.

In Metz, Thiem was trying to become the first player on the ATP World Tour this season to win titles on clay, grass, hard and indoors. Last year Djokovic and Federer accomplished the feat. There might be the chance to join the two by lifting the trophy at the Erste Bank Open 500 in Vienna in October.

“The indoor title is still missing and I am really looking forward to my home tournament, but Vienna features a very strong entry list and I am not really thinking about claiming the title. But I am really motivated to perform well in the last tournaments this year.”

Thiem will open his Chengdu campaign against the winner of the first round encounter between Konstantin Kravchuk of Russia and Chinese wild card Di Wu.