Dominic Thiem, the 28-year-old from Austria ended his long wait for victory after 14 long months as he beat Emil Ruusuvuori from Finland by 3-6, 6-1, 7-6(5) yesterday at the Nordea Open in Sweden. The win was his first ATP-level win in more than a year, previously to this match, Thiem had lost 10 ATP-level matches in a row.
Injuries kept the Austrian out for most of last year as he had to miss games from June 2021 to March 2022 due to wrist issues, Thiem will face Roberto Bautista Agut in the second round. He took the victory in two hours and 37 minutes and the win is bound to do his confidence a lot of good.
“I was fighting really good,” Dominic Thiem comments on his first win in 14 months
When asked in the post-match interview about the victory, Thiem said, “I didn’t have a very good start and then I was fighting really good, but I had a really tough period with many losses, not many wins, so it was really difficult for me to close out the match. Even though I played pretty good in second and third set – I’m happy with that – but I have to control the nerves a little bit better, especially when it got to the end.”
“I was happy that he gave the match to me with a double fault, I really needed that,” he said with a smile. “It’s a long time. Last victory on ATP Tour was in Rome, 2021. It feels like a different world somehow. Many, many things happened. It was tough, but it was also a very good experience, I think, for life in general, and for all my tennis and I’m so happy that I got this first victory here today,” Thiem added further.
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