Dominic Thiem’s coach Nicolas Massu believes the Austrian is a complete player and will challenge the Big 3 – Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic– for Grand Slam titles in coming years.
Thiem, who had started the year by reaching the final of the Australian Open, won his first major at the down-scaled 2020 US Open.
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“He is very complete; he plays well on all surfaces, he has a great serve, forehand, backhand, he moves well,” said Massu, a former Olympic gold medalist.
“He has the talent to do things much better than you think. It will always be difficult to play against the best in history (the Big three), but if there is anyone who can compete equally with them it is Dominic.”
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By winning the US Open, Thiem briefly ended the reign of the Big 3 in majors. Federer, Nadal and Djokovic had together won 13 straight majors since the start of the 2017 season until Thiem broke the streak in New York.
“The level of consistency Dominic Thiem has had in the last two years is spectacular,” the Chilean added.
“After 2019, it was already difficult to overcome what he had done: he won 5 tournaments in the year, reached a Grand Slam final.
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“It was super complex to do a better year and with few tournaments he did it: he finished No. 3, winning his first Grand Slam and winning on surfaces where previously the results were not the same as on clay.”
Massu believes Thiem’s success is not by accident. The 27-year-old is dedicated to his craft and works on it every single day to become a better player. One of the reasons for the Big 3’s continued success is that they have not stopped evolving or improving.
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““He works 100% every day, he has a spectacular mentality, apart from the talent and the power, how dedicated he is,” said the 41-year-old.
“He has a lot to keep improving. It is not easy to do so because the margin is very small at this level. If you do what you have to do, you will always have a chance of winning.”
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Thiem finished the season ranked No 3 in the world. He reached the final of the ATP Finals at London’s O2 Arena but could not get past Daniil Medvedev in the final.
