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Dominic Thiem, Tennis News

Dominic Thiem withdraws from Miami Open, saying: ‘I need to reset myself for clay season’


World number four Dominic Thiem has pulled out of the Miami Open, following Rafael Nadal in deciding to focus on clay season instead. 

Thiem has been desperately poor at the start of the season, and was beaten by qualifier Lloyd Harris in straight sets in Dubai on Tuesday.

Before that match had even started, though, Thiem had decided not to travel to Miami, and he explained his reasons after the match.

“Well you know that I like to play a lot, also when I was younger,” Thiem said. “So now I really just need to reset myself a little bit to really go fresh into the clay season.

“Obviously, right now I’m in a tough period and just wouldn’t be the right thing to go to Miami.”

Dominic Thiem looked spectacularly short of his best against Harris, both in terms of his movement and ball-striking.

He, though, says his long-standing foot injury was not the reason for the defeat – but he will get it checked out regardless.

“Well, today there was no pain at all in the foot,” Thiem said. “So it’s a little bit on and off. Maybe I’ll do a quick check or an MRI to see how that thing is developing.”

“But it’s not really the main issue, it’s just that I’m not playing well, that in general it is a tough period for me.

“I need to see that I’m starting fresh and really ready for the first clay tournament, wherever I wanna play.”


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Michael Graham, Tennishead.net Editor, has been a professional sports journalist for his whole career and is especially passionate about tennis. He's been the Editor of Tennishead.net for over 5 years and loves watching live tennis by visiting as many tournaments as possible. Michael specialises in writing in-depth features about the ATP & WTA tours.