Dominic Thiem: The Younger Gen Can Beat Big 4 Players, But It’s Hard Beating Multiple Big 4s In Events

Dominic Thiem is among the very best of the younger generation. The 23-year-old has wins over Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and Roger Federer, and he’s twice made the semifinals at the French Open. So he has the wins and the results, but he says, the problem isn’t beating a Big 4 player, instead, it’s having to beat more than one to win a big title.

Maybe the gap is not that big playing-wise,” Thiem said Monday in Canada. “I think we can beat them now. I think it’s just very difficult for us to win the big titles, to win the Grand Slam tournaments. We can beat one of them for sure, like, almost every day, but to win a Grand Slam you have to beat two or even three of them. I mean, that’s why it’s so tough to win these big titles.”

Thiem opens play tonight in Montreal against good friend Diego Schwartzman.

“I’m feeling much better than last season,” Thiem added. “It was everything new for me to play that many matches, to play that many tournaments, and to go deep as well.

“This year is really different. I mean, last year I had a lot of points from the 250 tournaments, from the 500 tournaments. This year it’s completely change. I have almost all my points from Grand Slams, 1000s, these events.”