Dominic Thiem jokes he wants to "steal everything from Rafa", says 2014 win over Wawrinka is "one of the best matches" he's played
Dominic Thiem recently took part in a Q&A session hosted by the Mutua Madrid Open. During the brief interaction, Thiem joked that he would like to possess all aspects of Rafael Nadal's game if given a chance.
The Austrian is currently training in Madrid, where he will be making his claycourt debut for the season. He has been drawn to face either Pablo Andujar or Marcos Giron in his first-round match.
During the Q&A session, Dominic Thiem was asked to name one aspect of any Spanish player's game that he would like to have. The 27-year-old unsurprisingly went with Rafael Nadal, and hilariously stated that he would like to 'steal' each one of Nadal's attributes.
"I would steal everything from Rafa (laughs)," Thiem said.
Dominic Thiem has been a two-time runner-up in Madrid (2017 and 2018), having beaten several quality players during both of those runs. But the Austrian's best memory at the event is from 2014, when he beat Stan Wawrinka in the second round.
Thiem believes his performance against Wawrinka ranks amongst the finest of his entire career.
"Best memory of the tournament is still when I beat Stan in 2014, first victory over a top 10 guy and I think still until now one of the best matches I've played," Dominic Thiem said.
The 27-year-old also revealed that his favorite Spanish word is 'vamos', but at first he did consider going with 'hola' instead. For the uninitiated, 'vamos' means 'let's go', and 'hola' is the Spanish equivalent of 'hello'.
"Hola, (laughs) no I think Vamos," Thiem added.
Dominic Thiem says he likes to have his dinner late
Dominic Thiem was also asked to name the first thing that comes to his mind when he thinks of Madrid. The World No. 4 answered with "football", which is not surprising given the Spanish capital's rich football heritage and Thiem's passion for the sport.
Thiem further revealed that his favorite thing about the city is the Mutua Madrid Open.
"The tournament here (is my favorite thing about Madrid)," Thiem said.
The next thing asked of Thiem was the one Spanish tradition that he would like his countrymen to imbibe. The 27-year-old responded that he likes to have his dinner late at night, much like Spanish people, which is something that he would like Austrians to do too.
"I really love to have late dinner like Spanish guys so I would bring that to my country," concluded Thiem.