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ROLEX SHANGHAI MASTERS

October 7, 2018

Dominic Thiem

Shanghai, China

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Shanghai courts are notoriously fast. What technical adjustments do you make to your game for this part of the season?
DOMINIC THIEM: Yeah, that's right. Last two days I practiced they are really fast, probably one of the fastest tournaments of the year. Yeah, there are not great adjustments to do. Just maybe a little bit shorter back swing and trying to stay close to the line.

But of course I think the faster the court gets, the more important the serve and the returning gets. I try to practice a lot this part of my game and hopefully it works out.

Q. Could you talk a little bit about what's your thoughts on the on-court coaching? I know the women have it on the courts. Is that something you'd like to see instituted in the men's game, or does it confuse it? Like at the US Open, the women have it at the regular tournaments and not there. Just your feelings on that.
DOMINIC THIEM: Well, I think on the women's tour, it's interesting, but I wouldn't like to see it on the men's tour because -- I don't know. It was a very long time now that it was very good without it, so it should stay this way.

But what I would change is that the coach could show some signs from the box and you don't get a penalty for that. I think this would be really good and also fine for everybody.

Yeah, if he can tell you something from the box or if he can show some signs and you don't need to be worried that you get a penalty, I mean, this would be great, I would say.

Q. Can you talk a little about consistency? This is probably going to be a third year in London. How important is consistency in the making of rivalries and really upping the sport and for spectators?
DOMINIC THIEM: Yeah, I mean, it's still pretty far away to London, but of course I hope that I will make it. Consistency, it's one of the most important things in tennis, because as you said, rivalries and everything else you can only build up if at least two players go very deep in a tournament. It's really, really difficult to go deep in almost every tournament you play, and I think that's what make the top four guys nowadays so special because they did it for over ten years.

The other players, including me and the other young players, we still struggling a little bit, and we have from time to time bad tournaments with early exits. Yeah, this we have to change.

Q. This year you didn't play Laver Cup. You played a tour event. You won it and you took two weeks off and you come to Shanghai. Could you talk about the reason you arrange your schedule like this? Are you trying to play less tournaments or what?
DOMINIC THIEM: Yeah, I tried to play a little bit less tournaments. And the decision for St. Petersburg and against the Laver Cup was, yeah, because I really like the tournament in St. Petersburg, obviously, but also because of the Davis Cup, which we had in Austria, and if I would also play Laver Cup would be way too much traveling and everything.

Especially at the end of the year, it's important to watch your schedule, not to do too much, not to run out of gas, because it's been a long and a very demanding season.

Yeah, I try to watch, to stay relaxed, to stay fresh. That's what I tried with playing a little bit less tournaments and stay a little bit more in Europe.

Q. You're playing doubles this week, as well. What goes into your thinking about when to sign up for doubles? And what do you expect from this week?
DOMINIC THIEM: First of all, it's great fun playing doubles. It's really, really nice. Second of all, it's great practice, as well. I mean, for returning and for the volleys, there is no better practice than doubles.

It's also good confidence if you play good in doubles. It doesn't happen too often to me, but it's very good practice for me. I like my partner this week, Robert. We understand each other very good. So it's a nice experience every new week to play doubles and especially good practice.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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