LONDON, November 18, 2016
Dominic Thiem‘s debut at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals has come to an end after losing the his last round robin match against Milos Raonic on Thursday evening, however, the 23-year-old Austrian was one of the most successful players in 2016. Thiem was the youngest competitor in this year’s field in London and he also become the first Austrian to qualify for the season finale since Thomas Muster. The former world number one qualified three times in 1990, 1995, 1996 and played as an alternate in 1997.
“I hope that I will be back here in the future. It’s one of the best tournaments. It was an amazing experience,” Thiem told on Thursday. “I’m also happy that I won one match and that I still had the chance to go into the semifinals on the last match. But, yeah, here are the best eight players of the season. Every match is close probably. You have to be on hundred percent from the very start. For sure I learned a lot of things.”
Thiem lost his opening match in Group Ivan Lendl to second seed Novak Djokovic in three sets but defeated Frenchman Gael Monfils to keep his chances alive ahead of his meeting with Raonic in order to reach the knock out stages.
“Well, of course, I would prefer to win today and to play another match. But, yeah, now of course it’s nice. Now I cannot change anything anymore. Of course, I’m looking forward to some days off,” the youngster told and added that he will now have some days for holidays before he will start with the preparation for the 2017 season. Thiem will start in Brisbane next year.
“I think that’s my big goal for next season, to keep a high level for all the year. Obviously I dropped, for sure. I was quite happy with the way I played in these three matches here. That’s also what I learned. Even when I played very bad at the tournaments before, I still played a decent tournament here. All three matches were a big highlight, for sure. I’m most happy about the win against Gael.”
With this positive conclusion, the world No. 9 has every reason to enter the 2017 season on a note of optimism.
