Thiem wants to 'make amends' with Serena Williams by playing Wimbledon mixed doubles

  • Posted: Jun 11, 2019

Austrian world number four Dominic Thiem has offered to play doubles with Serena Williams at Wimbledon to put their French Open dispute behind them.

Thiem had accused Williams of showing “bad personality” after he was asked to relocate a media conference to make way for the 23-time Grand Slam champion.

“Probably it was not Serena’s mistake. I find her achievements unbelievable, sensational.” he said on Tuesday.

“I would like to make amends with her in Wimbledon or US Open mixed doubles.”

Thiem, beaten in the men’s French Open final by Rafael Nadal, now believes tournament organisers were to blame for the incident that saw him shunted out of the interview room where he had begun answering questions following his fourth-round win over Uruguay’s Pablo Cuevas.

  • Thiem accuses Serena Williams of showing ‘bad personality’

“In retrospect, it was funny that such an organisational mistake happened at a Grand Slam tournament,” he added.

“What I do not understand is that it blew up so much.”

Williams won the mixed doubles title at Wimbledon in 1998 as a 16-year-old playing alongside Belarus’ Max Mirnyi, and teamed up with fellow American Francis Tiafoe in the Hopman Cup in January.

Thiem lost to Nadal in the French Open final for a second successive year last weekend and says he is confident on improving on previous displays at Wimbledon where he has only got beyond the second round once in five visits.

“Wimbledon is special, it is the most prestigious tournament in the world,” he added.

“I want to show myself better than last year. At that time I was slightly injured and had to give up in the first round [retiring against Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis]. Now I see good chances to get relatively far.”

Thiem will begin his grass-court preparations at the Halle tournament in Germany before Wimbledon starts on 1 July.

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