Dominic Thiem makes honest admission regarding rough return to tennis

Former world No. 3 Dominic Thiem admitted it wasn't easy for him to stay positive after losing his first seven matches of the season and admitted he felt he wasn't good enough to beat ATP Tour level guys.

The 2020 US Open champion, Thiem, lost his first seven matches of the season and decided to sit down with his teammates after a devastating straight-sets defeat to Hugo Delion in the first round of the French Open.

After a month and a half of practice, Thiem returned to action at the Szabut Challenger, where he reached the last-16 before reaching the Bastad quarter-finals last week.

Thiem: I felt I was not good enough to beat those guys

"It was not easy to stay positive in the spring as I kept losing matches one after the other," Thiem told the ATP website.

“Also, the way I played, I felt it was not good enough for the level of those guys. I went into those matches with the knowledge that I am not going to win, so it was very difficult. Mentally it was not easy.

After Roland Garros, I sat down with my team and said I needed one more training block to go back to fundamentals and get closer to my old level.

Now it's getting better again. It was not so good in the spring. It's very tough if you lose and go to the practice court for five days and then in the next match you lose again. It is very difficult".

Now, Thiem feels like he's slowly getting his touch back and looks forward to the rest of the season.