It took some time for Dominic Thiem to build his momentum back—after returning from a nine-month right wrist injury lay-off this year, he went 0-6 in his first six ATP events back.
But when you’ve won a Grand Slam and been ranked as high as No. 3 in the world, you know you’ll get it back—and it most definitely looks like Thiem’s gotten it back.
With a hard-fought 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 second-round victory over fellow Austrian Sebastian Ofner in Kitzbuhel on Wednesday, Thiem has now reached the quarterfinals (or better) at three ATP events in three consecutive weeks, having made the quarterfinals of Bastad two weeks ago and the semifinals of Gstaad last week.
This is the seventh time in his career that he’s achieved the feat, and the first time he’s done it in three years—in 2019, he reached the quarterfinals of Hamburg the week of July 22nd, won Kitzbuhel the week of July 29th and, after switching to hard courts, reached the quarterfinals of the Masters 1000 in Canada the week of August 5th.
THIEM REACHING THREE STRAIGHT ATP QFs IN THREE STRAIGHT WEEKS (or more):
2015: Won Umag, Won Gstaad, SFs of Kitzbuhel
2016: Won Buenos Aires, SFs of Rio de Janeiro, Won Acapulco
2016: QFs of Rome, Won Lyon, SFs of Roland Garros, Won Stuttgart, SFs of Halle
2017: QFs of Rotterdam, Won Rio de Janeiro, QFs of Acapulco
2018: Won Buenos Aires, QFs of Rio de Janeiro, QFs of Acapulco
2019: QFs of Hamburg, Won Kitzbuhel, QFs of Montreal
2022: QFs of Bastad, SFs of Gstaad, QFs (so far) in Kitzbuhel
Since that 0-6 tour-level start to 2022, Thiem has now gone 7-2 in the last three weeks.
He rose from No. 339 to No. 274 after reaching the quarterfinals of Bastad and from No. 274 to No. 199 after reaching the semifinals of Gstaad, and by reaching the quarters of Kitzbuhel he’s up to approximately No. 167 on the ATP Live Rankings.