An ‘exhausted’ Dominic Thiem voiced anger at tournament directors in Rome after losing to Fernando Verdasco 4-6 6-4 7-5 in the second round.
The Austrian wasn’t very happy at the organisation of the event after losing in two hours and 40 minutes against the Spaniard.
All second round and third round matches are being played today in Rome and Thiem wasn’t happy about having to wait around the whole day yesterday for play to be finally be cancelled.
Speaking after the loss Thiem seemed angry and also explained how tired he was, “The second thing which comes along with that is I really dislike how we players get treated at this tournament because yesterday was, in my opinion, not acceptable,” The Austrian said.
“Every single guy knew that it’s going to rain the whole day, and they hold us here until 7:00, 7:30. They also know since, I don’t know how long, that there’s going to be the football match yesterday night. The ride back from here to the hotel took like one and a half hours.
“I mean, I was having dinner. I couldn’t even have treatment, otherwise I wouldn’t get enough sleep. Then they schedule me at 10:00 today. I don’t think that’s acceptable.”
Continuing his rant, the world number four also claimed they should have cancelled play much earlier then they did, “I couldn’t even have treatment, otherwise I wouldn’t get enough sleep.Then they schedule me at 10:00 today. I don’t think that’s acceptable,” Thiem explained.
“Then there are also few other things. I mean, I’m coming Sunday midnight from Madrid. I have to do Monday so many things for the tournament. Ahead of that, I don’t even get more than one hour of practice court alone. Like this, I mean, I was tired, exhausted today.”
Despite his loss the good news for the Austrian is that he can now focus on resting ahead of the second grand slam of the season in a couple of weeks time at Roland Garros.
As for Verdasco, he edged out a feisty match in an epic and now needs to prepare for his third round match against Karen Khachanov.
There were also second round wins for Kei Nishikori and Diego Schwartzman but ninth seed Marin Cilic crashed out in his first match to Jan-Lennard Struff.
