Tennis heartthrob Dominic Thiem reflects on facing Novak Djokovic in Australian Open final

I’d much rather see Dominic Thiem win his first grand slam title later today than watch Novak Djokovic win the Australian Open for the 8th time.

Here’s what Thiem has to say about the daunting task ahead of him: “We are playing in tough times, [we] young players. We always have to beat all these unbelievable legends. But I think it’s a complete different situation. Rafa won Paris 12 times, Nole here seven times. That’s [an] unbelievable achievement. But I try to take my experience that I made in the past two major finals and try to improve myself even more. I think I did that from ’18 to ’19 in Paris, and I tried to improve even more now.
“In this one I have the feeling that I have great experience now. I’m feeling that I can really keep up my level for all the two weeks, which was not the case maybe in my first Roland Garros final. So that’s what I’m taking, [and I’m going to] try to be in the zone straightaway on Sunday night.”
“I won more of the last encounters than he did. But I think it doesn’t count so much. It’s absolutely his comfort zone here. He always plays his best tennis in Australia since many, many years. So I’m expecting that as well in the final. All I can do is my best again, playing great tennis again, and of course take a look at the past matches we had as well in Paris and also London, try to repeat the good stuff that I did there.”
“For sure he’s the favourite. I mean, he’s won seven titles here, never lost a final, going for his eighth one. I’m feeling good on the court. I’m playing great tennis. So [I’ll] try to be at my absolute best on Sunday.”