Illustration by Mads Berg
On and off court, the 23-year-old Austrian is unceasingly earnest, and unceasingly switched on. Hollywood has made an Austrian accent indicative of a robotic lethality, and for Thiem, such Schwarzeneggerian allegories seemed appropriate. But as his break- out 2016 season wore on, it became clear that Thiem was man, not machine.
Thiem had played constantly and won constantly over the first half of the year, with both quantity (four titles and a tour-leading 47 wins) and quality (victories over both Rafael Nadal on clay and Roger Federer on grass). But his unyielding drive ultimately stalled on him dramatically, and from Wim- bledon on he won just 11 of 22 matches. Hav- ing been comfortably fourth in the race to qualify for the World Tour Finals in London, Thiem slipped to ninth in the standings, and made it in during the last days of the season only after Rafael Nadal withdrew and Tomas Berdych let an easy win slip away in Paris the week before.
Thiem described his drop-off, fittingly, in mechanical terms.