Thiem: 'I Was Over The Limit Today'
Dominic Thiem admitted after his five-set fourth-round victory at Roland Garros against Hugo Gaston that he was, “not running on a full tank anymore”. For more than five hours over five sets on Wednesday he battled hard against Diego Schwartzman, but the recent US Open champion simply didn’t have anything left to give.
“To be honest, I was over the limit today,” Thiem said. “Maybe I would have recovered [for the semi-finals]. Even though I’m physically and mentally on the edge, you never know in a Slam, especially [with] tomorrow and Thursday off, two full days to recover. You never know what would happen. But at the end I gave everything I had out there.
“It was an amazing match. I think the first in my career over five hours. Diego fully deserves it.”
The World No. 3 arrived in Paris without having played since winning his maiden Grand Slam title in New York. But after a few matches on the terre battue he knew he did not have a full tank.
“I just tried to do everything I could on the days off to recover. [I] also tried something new, which I haven’t done before,” Thiem said. “Before the Round of 16, I did nothing the whole day. [I] just tried to be on 100 per cent again.”
It didn’t help that Thiem had to play five sets against Gaston after winning the first two sets. Their clash only lasted three hours and 32 minutes, but Thiem had to do a lot of sprinting to retrieve drop shots off the lefty’s racquet. Still, he played well enough to push recent Internazionali BNL d’Italia finalist Schwartzman to the brink.
“I was doing it quite well, I have the feeling. Also today I still could play at quite a high level for more than five hours,” Thiem said. “But he was keeping it up until the end. He was probably a little bit fresher than me in the fifth set, so that’s why he won.”
At the net Thiem told Schwartzman, his close friend, that he deserved the triumph. Thiem fell short of reaching a fifth consecutive Roland Garros semi-final, but while he is disappointed, the Austrian knows he gave it his best shot.
“I’m not sad with my performance here [at] Roland Garros. It was a pretty short time with the long trip home, jet lag and everything. Then, of course [this came after I won my] first Slam, which is a special thing,” Thiem said. “[I] came here, played in pretty brutal conditions, I would say. I cannot say it was a bad tournament, I’m pretty happy about it.”