WATCH: Dominic Thiem, Andrey Rublev and others screw up ATP's gift-wrapping challenge
Austria's Dominic Thiem was one of the six players to embrace the ATP's gift-wrapping challenge as the governing body shared a hilarious video on Friday.
With Christmas around the corner, the entire world is in a festive mood. Apart from Thiem, the video featured World No. 8 Andrey Rublev, Frances Tiafoe, Grigor Dimitrov, Hubert Hurkacz and Denis Shapovalov. In an individual task, all of them were given wrapping paper, ribbon, tape, scissors and glue to gift-wrap a tennis racquet in 60 seconds.
Bulgaria's Dimitrov stated that he loved packing and was the only one who did not create a mess. He wrapped his racquet with utmost professionalism. However, all others struggled, though they seemed to have a lot of fun. An animated Rublev could be seen knocking all the material off the table as he required more space. After finishing the task, he jokingly compared himself to Picasso.
Tiafoe, on the other hand, dropped the racquet itself while a rare expletive could be heard from the American. He burst out laughing watching the final product that he made but still gave himself six out of ten before changing it to a negative six. Similar to him was Dominic Thiem, who felt embarrassed. He said that he packed something for the first time in his life and asked the viewers for forgiveness.
The video ended with all the players wishing the fans a happy holiday season.
Dominic Thiem feels his preparation is on track for 2023
After a severe wrist injury last year, Dominic Thiem found himself out of action for the next nine months. He returned to the court in March this year but his level had dropped significantly as he lost the first seven matches, only to drop to No. 352 in the ATP rankings in June. The 29-year-old has since been playing well, having reached the semifinals in Gstaad, Gijon, and Antwerp.
He is currently in Dubai for the World Tennis League exhibition tournament. During an interview with The National, the Austrian expressed satisfaction at the way his game was improving.
“I have a feeling that I’m going in a good direction. The way is positive for me, the way I’m practicing, I’m very happy about it,” Dominic Thiem said. “I think I’m on my way to reaching the goals for the off-season, which was to get those last missing percentages. And I feel that I’m playing better, like at the end of the 2022 season, which is a good sign. Coming towards the end of the season, coming closer to the first real matches again, I’m happy about it.”
The World No. 102 finished his season with a win-loss record of 18-16. He was happy to have climbed more than 200 spots in a span of four months and aimed to get back to his best in 2023.
"I told myself I have to put a little bit of pressure on myself to start winning matches again, and it worked out well. From 300 in the rankings to 100 in just three or four months, which was very good. My goal is to be on the way again, to achieve this, to be able to beat anybody, to go far in every tournament and I hope during 2023 this will happen again," he added.