Dominic Thiem responds to recent unsavory media reports by releasing cryptic statement about a "mistake" during his recovery process
Dominic Thiem's split with fitness trainer Alex Stober recently made headlines, as the latter criticized Thiem's treatment of their relationship.
According to a statement released by Stober on Wednesday, he was kept in the dark about his dismissal until the last minute. Stober also accused Thiem of lacking the "courage" to address him in person.
Thiem, who had been tight-lipped on the issue earlier, broke his silence on Friday and released a counter-statement via his Twitter account.
https://t.co/KcU3r7gmpB
In the statement, Dominic Thiem addressed the recent shuffle in his team and said that the changes made in the last few weeks were minor and didn't affect his "core" unit. The 28-year-old went on to add that he was pleased with the new structure in place.
"As many of you know, a few months ago I decided to make a few changes to my team," the statement read. "This was all announced and we were all happy with the changes we made. These changes did not affect my core competition team which has remained the same throughout."
Dominic Thiem later described, albeit a little vaguely, his recovery process from the injury. The Austrian said his team had come up with a comprehensive recovery plan but an "unfortunate mistake" during ended up costing him the entire season.
Thiem subsequently claimed that he initially didn't want to divulge the details of the aforementioned "mistake", but was being forced to come forward with "his side of the story".
"Unfortunately as you all know, I picked up a freak injury in the build up to Wimbledon," the statement said. "I worked hard with wrist specialists and my team to agree on the best recovery plan. In hindsight, during the recovery process, an unfortunate mistake resulted in me missinng not only the US Open, but ultimately the rest of the season."
"I would have loved to have kept this issue private but following some disappointing reports in the media, I have decided that it is important that I share my side of the story and will be addressing the media in due course," it continued.
The latter part of Dominic Thiem's statement, about the disappointing media reports, has led many to believe that the mistake had something to do with Alex Stober's firing. The Austrian didn't give specific details about the mistake, but assured that he would do so "in due course".
"We have moved on, my focus is on getting back to playing tennis" - Dominic Thiem
Dominic Thiem closed out the statement by saying that despite some of the stories doing rounds on the internet, he had already moved on from the matter. He also expressed hope that the release of his statement would stop any further conversations on the topic.
Thiem further claimed that his main focus at the moment was to get back to "full fitness" and return to competition as soon as possible.
"We have already moved on but I hope that this can help me to draw a line under the experience and focus on getting back to full fitness in order to start playing again as soon as possible," the statement read.