Up-and-coming Austrian and his unusual coach

[Moxie]

Johnsteinbeck has kindly translated a very interesting and charming piece from the Austrian magazine Fleisch about a young Austrian player, Dominic Thiem, and his coach, Sepp Resnik, who is quite the character. Read the article here.

Thanks, JS!

 

[tented]

Thank you for the translation, Johnsteinbeck and Moxie.

I had never heard of Sepp Resnik before, but I'll never forget him now. He seems like a cross between the SNL character Matt Foley ("We're gonna do jumping jacks and cartwheels!") and Toni Nadal. And I mean that in a good way.

I haven't had the chance to see Thiem, but look forward to it. After losing the first set, he won the second, but then lost in a third-set tiebreak to Tsonga in Vienna last week. Pretty impressive for a 20 year old ranked 149.

 

[Kieran]

Excellent article, thanks John!

Great to see an off-centre approach to training. Hope he succeeds. Also, hope he doesn't overdo it. A lot of tennis fitness is tailored for the sport. I'm sure his guru knows this, though. Remarkable guy...

 

[Didi]

Really enjoyed this crazy and wonderful story, what a great way to spend a rainy and boring morning in the office. Thanks a lot Moxie and johnsteinbeck! Can't tell you how much I appreciate such an intriguing story. Seep Resnik seems to be a combination of 3 guys - first Mr. Miyagi from Karate Kid, then Dirk Nowitzki's personal coach and father figure Holger Geschwinder who is a guru when it comes to crazy training methods and work ethic and finally of course as tented already mentioned Uncle Toni.

By the way another very promising Austrian talent to keep an eye on is Lucas Miedler, arguably an even bigger talent than Dominik Thiem. I don't think he has yet turned pro but I heard a lot of promising things about the boy. He's of the same generation as Borna Coric, Christian Garin and Gianluigi Quinzi, all born 1996. Who knows, this group along with Nick Kyrgios and Jiri Vesely might become the real deal one day. I mean one day a new great player will definitively arrive on the horizon, it always happens. If Dimitrov, Janowicz etc. won't be able to deliver in the next few years maybe this group will in 6-7 years.

 

[Moxie]

Thanks for reading, guys. Also, Didi, thanks for the names of young players to look out for. (Note, all credit to johnsteinbeck, and to tented for formatting in the photos.)

 

[scoop]

Excellent article, thanks for sharing. Love these non conformist types who have their own visions. Hope to see Team Thiem make it big.