Austrian Davis Cup team captain Jurgen Melzer says Dominic Thiem has looked well in practice this week and he is hopeful we will see “a good Dominic” this weekend against Croatia. Between February 03-04, Austria will be taking on Croatia in the Davis Cup qualifiers.
Thiem, the 2020 US Open champion, has yet to rediscover his best form since returning from a wrist injury but he is still the top Austrian male tennis player. “I’m really happy that Dominic is here and has agreed to play in this Davis Cup.
He’s had a really difficult journey over the past few years, to be honest, but you could see at the end of last year that he’s getting reasonably close to where he belongs. He reached a semi-final in a 250, played a good tournament in Vienna.
But of course he’s not quite where he was when he won the US Open, there’s no doubt about that. However, I think it could be a good assessment of where he stands here. We’re definitely not the favorites before this international match, but playing in a team is always different than standing alone on the court.
So I’m really looking forward to seeing how he handles the situation. When he trained here, everything looked normal and fine. So I think we’ll see a good Dominic this weekend,” Melzer told oetv.at.
Can Thiem lead Austria to the Davis Cup Finals?
For the tie, Austrian captain Melzer nominated Thiem, Jurij Rodionov, Dennis Novak, Lucas Miedler and Alexander Erler.
On the other side, Croatian captain Vedran Martic nominated Borna Coric, Borna Gojo, Mate Pavic and Nikola Mektic. The Croatian team suffered a setback going into the tie as Marin Cilic won’t be playing this week after recently undergoing a knee surgery.
Still, Austrian captain Melzer named the Croatians as the favorites but Croatia certainly won’t take Austria lightly. The Austrian team needs Thiem to deliver and it will be interesting to see if the former world No 3 can step up for his nation this weekend.
