Having fulfilled his dream of becoming a member of the Grand Slam winners membership by taking the U.S. Open title this yr, Austrian Dominic Thiem is setting out his targets for 2021 and hopes to be standing on the rostrum on the Tokyo Olympics. The 27-year-old misplaced three Grand Slam finals earlier than lastly profitable at Flushing Meadows in September, turning into the primary participant exterior the trio of Novak Djokovic, Rafa Nadal and Novak Djokovic to win a significant since 2016.
Thiem skipped the Rio Olympics in 2016 and was set to overlook Tokyo on account of scheduling points earlier than the Video games had been pushed again to 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Whereas subsequent yr’s tennis calendar has but to be confirmed, the boys’s world quantity three mentioned Tokyo was pencilled into his plans.
“I’m going to take part on the Olympic Summer time Video games in Tokyo beginning on July 23!” Thiem mentioned in a submit on his web site. “I’ve been fascinated about it for an extended time period, and subsequent yr it will definitely suits into my match schedule.”
Thiem is coached by Chile’s Nicolas Massu, who received each the singles and doubles gold medals in Athens in 2004.
“And I’m trying ahead to it to compete for a medal. My coach Nicolas Massu received two gold medals in Athens in 2004, he advised me concerning the extremely fantastic feelings,” he added.
“I need to really feel these type of feelings myself. For an athlete the environment on the Olympics should be distinctive, I need to soak all of it up.”