Dominic Thiem’s French Open woes a ‘big surprise’ as Austrian ‘not as motivated as before’

Mats Wilander has said Dominic Thiem is “not as motivated as before” after his shock first-round exit at the French Open. The reigning US Open champion and former French Open finalist was dumped out of the tournament in a five-set loss to world No 68 Pablo Andujar on Sunday.

Despite leading two sets to love against his Spanish opponent, the world No 4 fell to a stunning defeat in five sets – losing 4-6, 5-7, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4.

And three-time French Open winner Wilander was surprised to see Thiem exit the tournament so early.

“Yes, this was a big surprise, I actually predicted him to get all the way to the finals,” Wilander told Eurosport.

“I thought that he would be nicely rested. Of course, we know that he has been having a few problems with his tennis.

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“When you see the whole match he looks a little bit tired. He is not as motivated as before.

“I’m sure he is going to be back, but it does feel like he might need to take a little bit of a break at this moment.”

The defeat continues a poor season for the Austrian who has struggled for form since winning his first Grand Slam title at the US Open last year.

Despite his recent slump in form, Thiem believes that motivation is not an issue but that his “shots are missing power” and are “not accurate enough”.

“I was not struggling at all with my motivation, but the game was just not there today,” he said after the match. “All the shots are missing power. They are not accurate enough.

“I’m not moving well enough, so everything in my game has some per cents missing.

“I don’t really know why, because since I stepped back on court it’s already been two months, and I was really practising well, super intense as well.”

Meanwhile, the victory for Andujar follows his surprising win over Roger Federer earlier this month at the Geneva Open.

He said: “I believed in myself because I played well [against Federer] two weeks ago. Usually being drawn against Thiem is a bad draw.