Today at the French Open, we saw one of the biggest upsets in the men’s draw, as former 2-time finalist, Dominic Thiem, crashed out in the first round. The Austrian was playing against 87-ranked Bolivian tennis player Hugo Dellien. Thiem started the match as a favorite, however, he lost in straight sets to the Bolivian player. Later at the press conference, Thiem revealed a lot of things about his current struggles on the tour since returning from his wrist injury. 

Dominic Thiem talks about getting nervous while playing at the French Open 2022

In today’s game, the 2020 US Open winner missed a lot of forehands and backhands, as the errors were piling up. When asked about having any physical or mental issues, Thiem said, “No, zero physical issues. I also have no mental problems with the forehand, I’m not scared or anything, but the problem is that, as I said, in practice was really decent already the forehand but then match situation is something different, Grand Slam especially, I’m obviously a little bit more tight, more nervous and obviously the whole body gets more tight, gets more nervous and right now that’s toxic to my forehand because I’m still missing the fine feeling there, I’m missing it a lot.”

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Notably, Thiem has been one of the best power hitters in the game. In recent times, he lacked plenty of power both from his forehand and backhand. Speaking about that, he further said, “Yeah, I’m not missing one specific thing, but many things, actually. Obviously there’s not enough power yet in my shots and it’s not only the forehand, I have way too low percentage of first serve, the first serve is not hurting enough. The backhand is okay, but as well it’s not long enough, it’s not fast enough.”

“There was one game today where I did four or five forehand return mistakes in a row where I’m thinking, what the heck is happening, you know, because really just want to put it in and it’s not working,” he further talked about his struggles. 

Today, he lost to Hugo Dellien in 2 hours and 1 min; the final result was 6-3,6-2,6-4. 

Injury killed Thiem’s momentum

In June 2021, Thiem suffered a wrist injury and missed the entire 2021 season. While going through the recovery process, he tried to make a comeback on many occasions on the tour. Unfortunately, he could not, due to his injury. This year, he finally came back during the clay-court season, at the Marbella challenger. Since then, he played in many tournaments and has yet to win a single match. 

Notably, the Austrian was no.5 in when he suffered the injury at the Mallorca Open in June 2021. Before that, he was on great momentum and looked all set to win a few more Grand Slam titles. Moreover, he used to be one of the best clay-court players and was destined to win a French Open title in the future; Even Nadal thought the same. However, he has not been the same player since his return on the tour. Now, he will be hoping for a better grass-court season than the clay-court season. 

Watch This Story: When Dominic Thiem had to leave the press conference because of Serena Williams

Can Thiem come back stronger during the grasscourt season? Let us know in the comments.