World number four Dominic Thiem is ready to improve his record at Wimbledon as he looks to make a Grand Slam breakthrough at SW19.
The 25-year-old Austrian has gone beyond the second round just once in five trips to the All England Club, while last year he was forced to retire in the first round when facing Marcos Baghdatis.
But fresh from his second French Open final appearance at Roland Garros, the Wiener Neustadt native says he is up for the challenge of the grass-court campaign.
“Wimbledon is special, it is the most prestigious tournament in the world,” he said. “I want to show myself better than last year. At that time I was slightly injured and had to give up in the first round. Now I see good chances to get relatively far.”
Thiem, who found Rafael Nadal too strong once again in Paris for the second year in a row, starts his Wimbledon build-up at the Halle tournament in Germany, which starts next week.
However, at 34.00, he is not considered to be among the favourites to win Wimbledon next month.
Reigning champion Novak Djokovic is the current 2.50 favourite to retain his title and add a fifth Wimbledon title to his CV that already has 15 Grand Slams on it.
Eight-time champion Roger Federer is the 4.33 second favourite after the Swiss crashed out in the quarter-finals as defending champion last summer to South Africa’s Kevin Anderson in five sets – despite winning the first two and having a match point in the third.
Leave a comment
Link Dafabet