Dominic Thiem had a worried and stunned tone after his shocking loss in the second round at the Western and Southern Open. Thiem lost to Serbian Filip Krajinovic with a shocking 6-2, 6-1 scoreline in his first ATP match since March. The world number three Thiem had a surprisingly off day returning serve.

“It was just a horrible game by myself. Didn’t play well at all. Didn’t get any rhythm,” Thiem said in his post-match interaction.

The second seed at the Western and Southern Open, Thiem was able to win only two points on Krajinovic’s serve throughout the match. His serve was also broken four times in the match. “I felt like I didn’t win any points on his serve,” Thiem added.

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Dominic Thiem hopes to find answers

Dominic Thiem said he will go back to the drawing board and assess what went wrong. He hopes to find answers sooner than later, as the US Open approaches. “I had [a lot of] trouble with returning. It’s tough to understand right now, but, I will think about it and hopefully, I’ll find better answers in the next days,” Thiem expressed.

A big loss of this manner came at the wrong time for Thiem, with the US Open beginning in less than a week. Thiem will be seeded second there as well and is one of the favorites to clinch his first Grand Slam title. He reached the Australian Open final in January, where he defeated Rafael Nadal in the quarter-final. He lost to Novak Djokovic.

Missing fans’ support?

Before the start of his campaign, Thiem showed his disappointment at not having fans in the stadiums. He expressed that he likes feeding off the energy from the fans and that helps him in crunch situations.

“Tennis is such a mental sport, and I guess it makes it way more difficult without fans, because I just imagine playing in the fifth set on Arthur Ashe, night session, way past midnight, and in a normal year you get so much energy from the fans,” Thiem had said.

If that indeed played on his mind in the match against Krajinovic, Thiem will have to find a way to deal with the situation before the US Open. Thiem’s exit makes Stefanos Tsitsipas the highest ranked player remaining in the bottom half of the draw at the Cincinnati Open.

Also read – “It’s Worth the Same Like Every Year” – Dominic Thiem Rubbishes Less Competition at US Open 2020