His slump–albeit a brief one–could be easily explained. The 21-year-old had to fulfill an offseason commitment to the Austrian army, so his November and December were hardly like those months for any other professional tennis player. Moreover, long-time training partner Ernests Gulbis split from fellow coach Gunther Bresnik early this year. That threw a wrench into Thiem’s team and perhaps put another dent his progress.
He lost both of his matches during the Australian summer and won back-to-back matches at just one of his first seven tournaments in 2015. That included a first-round upset loss to James Duckworth in Indian Wells and a second-round exit in a Challenger event at the hands of Aljaz Bedene.
But with plenty of match practice under his belt and perhaps feeling comfortable at a tournament where he excelled last year, Thiem finally got on track at the Miami Open. The world No. 52’s quarterfinal run came to end on Wednesday with a 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 setback against Andy Murray, but not before Thiem took out Diego Schwartzman, Feliciano Lopez, Jack Sock, and Adrian Mannarino.
As usual, Thiem blogged about all of his performances on Facebook–so at long last he had consistently positive things to write.
After beating Lopez: “It was a very important win for me, my game has improved a lot and I think it was also a nice match to watch. I am very happy and in some way relieved, that everything went so well today. It’s balsam for my soul!”
After beating Sock: “It was a good match, I served good and it was quite nice to watch to I guess. I went on court very concentrated.”
After beating Mannarino: “It was a pretty long and intense match. The first set was good, the second a little carelessness cost me. I was a break down (in the third), but fought back by playing my best tennis. I am so excited for my fist quarterfinal at a [big] event.”
A Masters 1000 semifinal will have to wait, as Murray got the best of Thiem for a second time in their second career meeting. The underdog played a near-flawless first set and saved a break point while successfully serving it out, but Murray took control when he broke Thiem at 5-4 in the second. From there it was mostly one-way traffic.
I saw him play at Indian wells and he was great fun to watch…a nice guy and plenty of talent!