Thiem will be fitter and stronger in 2023, fitness trainer Jez Green says
The Austrian has been working his way back up the rankings after a serious wrist injury
Mao / Panoramic
It’s been a long road back to full fitness for Dominic Thiem, the 2020 US Open champion who was off the Tour for nine months due to a serious wrist injury.
In recent weeks, though, the Austrian has shown encouraging signs that he is getting back to his best, reaching a Challenger Tour final in Rennes and most recently, the semi-finals of the ATP event in Gijon.
With his ranking now up to No 132, he is targeting a fast start to 2023 and his fitness trainer, Jez Green, who has worked with Andy Murray and who is also currently helping Emma Raducanu, believes he should soon be back to his very best.
Writing for TennisHead magazine, Green said he had instituted a structured fitness programme for Thiem, the first time the Austrian has ever done that. “We’ve put science into his fitness program, which he hasn’t really done before,” Green said.
Green said the process back to fitness has been slow and tough for Thiem, who ruptured his right wrist twice. Building up strength and learning to trust in his wrist again, particularly on the forehand, took time but Green said physically, he is as good as ever.
“His body, because he’s done so much fitness over the last five months, is really good,” Green said. “The only thing he’s missing is matches, but he’s getting those now. His actual fitness and his body was conditioned and pretty much ready to go by Miami in May time, it’s just that the shots weren’t there. There was no pain in the wrist since about February.
“I think we’ll start seeing the real, full-on, vintage Dominic Thiem soon. He now needs to play matches and now needs 25 high-level matches to get back to the top and I think he’s ready for it.
“I always work three or so months ahead of time, because I’m always planning where the body needs to go to. So I’ve got half an eye on Australia personally, but he’s ready with the work he’s done over the last three to six months and he was really well-prepared for the US Open for the first time in over a year.
“He’s fresh, he’s ready, he’s fit and he’s pain-free. With another really big training block in November and December, I think he will be at another level by Australia. He will have full power and be even stronger, fitter, and faster than ever before.
“We’ve done a lot of strength work in order to make him much more explosive. I think he’s going to end up looking a little different than before. It’s not going be dramatic, but people will say: ‘Hey, he looks strong’. Everyone around is starting to notice his body is changing.”
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