Thiem: Djokovic "Too Strong" In Semi-Final

Although he is disappointed to have not made his first Grand Slam final, Dominic Thiem has made plenty of strides forward during his two weeks at Roland Garros.

The No. 13 seed lost in straight sets to top seed Novak Djokovic in their semi-final on Friday. Thiem acknowledged that his opponent was “too strong” today, but felt his level of play didn’t reflect what brought him to the final four.

“I think he played really well today, but I also think that mostly throughout the match, I made it a little too easy for him and made too many mistakes,” said Thiem. “It’s tough against him. He doesn’t give you any presents and his return is unbelievable. If you have to play basically every game without the advantage of your serve, it’s going to be unbelievably tough against him.”

The past two weeks have been full of milestones for the Austrian. In addition to reaching his first Grand Slam semi-final, he will also make his debut inside the Top 10 of the Emirates ATP Rankings when next week’s standings are released. Thiem is projected to enter at No. 7.

“It’s very nice,” said Thiem. “It’s a big milestone for every player to break the Top 10.”

The Austrian is scheduled to kick off his grass court season at next week’s ATP World Tour event in Stuttgart. Perhaps most importantly, Thiem has regained both his confidence and top form that will make him a contender for another deep run in London.

“This was a very good experience,” he said. “I didn’t play well in Madrid and Rome and didn’t have a good feeling. Then I worked very hard in Nice and I got back my good feeling. I started to play very well again.”