ZÜRICH, April 4, 2015

When Latvian Ernests Gulbis split with his coach Günter Bresnik a couple of days ago, the Austrian youngster Dominic Thiem immediately lost his best practice partner.

So it suited fine that none other than 17-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer was looking for a player to prepare for the start of the clay court season. According to Austrian newspaper “Kurier”, Thiem will practice with Federer in Zürich next week. The Swiss skipped the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Miami and found in the 21-year-old Austrian a strong partner. In Florida Thiem celebrated four victories, reached his first quarterfinal at Masters level and will return to the top 50 on Monday.

“Getting an invitation from Roger Federer is a great honour,” Thiem’s coach Günter Bresnik told the Kurier. “It is an award for what he has achieved.”

Both players will start their clay court season on the ATP World Tour with the Masters 1000 event in Monte Carlo. Last year, Thiem needed a wild card to enter the tournament, thanks to his good results in the recent past this will not be the case this season.