Dominic Thiem to defend Barcelona Open title in 2020

What's the story?

Defending champion, Dominic Thiem, has unsurprisingly signed up to once again compete in the Barcelona Open in 2020. The Austrian showed his clay-court prowess during the 2019 season and went onto win his maiden crown in Barcelona.

In case you didn't know

Being one of the older members of the NextGen, Dominic Thiem has arguably the most mature game when compared to his peers. Due to being fairly shorter when compared to some of his giant fellow NextGenners, Thiem isn't afforded the raw power they are able to generate and because of that he plays with greater diversity and is arguably more adept at the net.

The heart of the matter

Dominic Thiem has shown over the last couple of years that he is probably going to be the inheritor of Rafael Nadal's peerless stranglehold over the clay-court season. Whilst Nadal remains the dominant force on clay, Thiem looks like he is edging closer and closer to a genuine challenge against the Spaniard.

Though the Barcelona Open is just an ATP 500 event, we can expect that many big names will also sign up in due course. Nevertheless, if Thiem can continue his inspired form on clay he will be one of the favourites to win in 2020.

As long as Rafael Nadal plays, which he is expected to do in 2020 as well, then he will be the unquestionable favourite to win in Barcelona, having won the tournament 11 times in the past. However, that is no guarantee, as Dominic Thiem showed us last year in a conclusive straight sets victory over the Spaniard on clay.

Other big names such as Daniil Medvedev and Stefanos Tsitsipas featured in this years edition of the tournament, so in all likelihood, they will compete again in 2020. Whilst the focus will be largely on Nadal and to a lesser extent Thiem, we can expect it to be a star-filled tournament.