Ahead of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, Dominic Thiem laid out his objectives for the upcoming season. Seeded No.1, Thiem will face Lloyd Harris in the opening round of the ATP 500 tournament.

In an interview, the Austrian mentioned that winning a medal at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics was a big goal for him this year. Since the Olympics were originally scheduled in 2020, Thiem acknowledged he was lucky as he had intended to skip the Tokyo Games last year to compete at the Kitzbuhel Open in his home country instead.

“Yeah, I mean actually was lucky because last year I wasn’t able to play the Olympics, but they got postponed to this year. So, I hope that I can participate this year, and obviously to get a medal there is maybe one of the big targets this year,” said Thiem.

Dominic Thiem is aiming big

The World No. 4 also talked about his aim of clinching the French Open trophy this year. Over the years, Thiem has played impeccably at Roland Garros and has reached the finals in 2018 and 2019 but has lost each time to Rafael Nadal.

Having won his maiden Grand Slam title at the 2020 US Open, Thiem is confident of challenging Nadal again on the red clay and is training to improve all areas of his game.

“And French Open as well, as I had such good results there in the previous years. So that’s what I am trying to build on, and that’s when I’m trying to be at the top of my game in all aspects again,” added Thiem.

Going by Thiem’s standards, he hasn’t performed that well since the start of the season. The 27-year-old lost in straight sets in the fourth round of the 2021 Australian Open, a tournament where he ended as the runner-up last year.

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After an unimpressive Australian Open, Thiem lost in the quarterfinals to Roberto Bautista Agut at the Qatar Open last week. With the Dubai Open underway, it’s a great opportunity for Thiem to get back to top form.