Sprinting on a slippery court after a lengthy rain delay, Dominic Thiem casually slapped a forehand between his legs.
Although his opponent, Florian Mayer, put the shot away at the net, the crowd rose to its feet at the sight of such audacity and skill.
It wasn’t the only time the young Austrian, one of game’s brightest young stars and, at 22, the youngest member of the top 10, had the spectators on their feet against a player who’d sliced and diced him out of the semi-final of Halle, Germany, two weeks ago. In a little over an hour-and-a-half, Thiem ripped 43 winners, including 14 aces, past the unseeded German to win 7-5, 6-4, 6-4 and move to the second round.
Thiem may have won more matches than anyone else on the men’s tour this year but he was visibly relieved to have got through. “I was really not scared, but I had a lot of respect from him,” he said. “I was really, really happy when I made the match point, because he won a 500 [tournament] on grass. Beat five really good players on the way. It was for sure one of the toughest draws in the first round for me.”
Softy-spoken and modest, Thiem said last month he was “not quite ready” to win a Grand Slam event. But his play at Roland Garros in Paris, where he battled calmly through four four-set matches and numerous rain delays to reach his first Grand Slam semi-final, showed how much he’s matured both mentally and physically in the past two years.
After beating Thiem in the French Open semi-finals, defending Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic called him “one of the leaders of the new generation,” who is “very motivated to show himself and others that he deserves to be at the top and compete for the biggest titles.”
Just like at Roland Garros, Thiem kept a cool head during the endless drizzle at Wimbledon. His match against Mayer, which started on Tuesday afternoon before rain halted play for the day, had resumed at around noon. After playing five games, both players were off again at 4-4, this time for close to four-and-a-half hours.
“It’s a very good atmosphere in the locker room,” Thiem said, when asked what he did during the delay. “Many friends. We were watching Centre Court matches together. There is a basketball basket there and a little golf putting, so there are some things to do.”
Dominic Thiem
Best of luck to Chelsea fan @ThiemDomi at #Wimbledon (when the rain stops of course)... pic.twitter.com/sM6b9gDUSm
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) June 29, 2016
Thiem, who has mopped up four titles on three surfaces this season, never lost his focus. He broke at 5-5 in the first set, 2-2 in the second and 3-3 in the third as the wind often unsettled Mayer’s serve. Occasionally sliding on the grass as if it was his favourite clay, Thiem never faced a break point against Mayer, the world No.80, who tried in vain to unsettle his opponent with a vast array of angled shots and slicked backhands.
Best known for his ferocious single-handed backhand, which earned him the moniker “Dominator”, Thiem has made huge improvements to his game in the past year. Although he had won only one match at Wimbledon in two appearances before this year, and five of his six titles have come on clay, he mastered the grass this season by winning the title in Stuttgart, Germany, the week after Roland Garros.
“I was feeling not comfortable all the last two years on grass,” Thiem said. “The biggest difference this year is of course I got a lot of self-confidence, but the biggest difference is my movement. I am much more down and much more stable.”
Thiem added that he’s also serving and volleying more and added slice to his game.
Although Thiem is widely seen as a potential future Grand Slam winner, he was characteristically modest when asked about his goals at Wimbledon. “Top 10 was a big milestone because it's so tough to reach,” he said. “Now my next big goal is just to stay there as long as possible, because maybe it's even tougher to stay there than to break into the top 10.”
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