Six months on from his maiden Grand Slam championship win at the 2020 US Open, Austrian youngster, Dominic Thiem has set his sights high. After a disappointing start to the year at the Australian Open 2021, Thiem has revealed that one of his biggest career goals is to win the French Open title. A fairly difficult task in itself, considering how elusive the title has proven over the years, Theim has made his job even harder by wanting to claim the Roland Garros title by beating Rafael Nadal on his way to it.
ðº watching the Laureus Awards growing up in ð¦ð¹
ð¾ goals for the 2021 tennis season#Laureus21 Breakthrough of the Year Nominee @ThiemDomi reacts to his nomination and tells us his next career goal after winning the 2020 @usopen ð pic.twitter.com/ii5cjADKrl— Laureus (@LaureusSport) March 6, 2021
Thiem seeks to stop Rafael Nadal Grand Slams run at French Open
After slipping from World No.3 to No.4 in the ATP rankings after his round four defeat at the Australian Open 2021, Dominic Thiem revealed to the Laureus Sports Awards channel that his greatest ambition in his career is to defeat Rafael Nadal on the way to his maiden French Open title sometime soon. Thiem received a nomination for the Laureus Sports Awards ‘Breakthrough of the Year Award’ for 2020 for his breakthrough performance last year and will be going up against Ansu Fati, Patrick Mahomes, Joan Mir, Tadej PogaÄar and 2020 French Open winner Iga ÅwiÄ tek.
The Rafael Nadal ranking – World No.2 – and dominance will be on display once again at the French Open 2021 which is due to begin in May. Rafa will be aiming to extend his record to an unbelievable 14 titles and become the first man to win more than 20 Grand Slam titles. Talking about Nadal’s dominating run at the tournament last year, Thiem said that “I think last year he was 34 already and he played probably one of the best tournaments ever, so he’s definitely the guy to beat”.
The 27-year-old also added that “I like to set more short term goals, but to win the French Open is such a huge thing … it’s actually a career goal. It’s my biggest goal as well for this year.” Thiem’s choice of tournament is not surprising considering his results at the French Open. While he is a US Open champion, Thiem’s best Slam performances have actually come at the Roland Garros where he is a two-time semi-finalist and a two-time runner up (both finals lost to Rafael Nadal).
Rafael Nadal ranking
Along with pulling out from all his ATP Cup fixtures this year, Rafael Nadal lost a significant amount of ranking points after he crashed out in Round 4 of the Australian Open 2021. Currently ranked 2nd behind Djokovic, the King of Clay will be hoping to stay in place as No.3 Daniil Medvedev looks to cover up the slim 115 point difference and dethrone him.
Novak Djokovic vs Roger Federer
After starting his year out with a record 9th Australian Open title, Novak Djokovic has successfully deposed Roger Federer (310) as the player with the ‘Most weeks spent at No.1’. With 311 weeks at No.1 as of March 8, Djokovic looks set to hold his place atop the table with a 2000-point lead on Nadal.