Australian Open 2020 news - 'Thiem needs to change to match Federer, Nadal and Djokovic' - Wilander

The Austrian, twice a French Open finalist, has never progressed beyond the quarter-final stage at any other Slam, with his best results at Wimbledon and the Australian Open being fourth-round exits.

He suffered first-round defeats at both Wimbledon and the US Open last year and came perilously close to a second-round upset in Melbourne this year, being pushed to five sets after holding a commanding lead against world No 140 Alex Bolt.

Wilander believes that Thiem needs to adjust his attitude and his approach to being in winning situations if he is to reach his full potential and challenge the so-called 'Big Three' for the top titles.

"It was a pretty difficult situation for him to play on a hard court against a left-handed player in Alex Bolt who had the crowd," he said on his Eurosport show Game, Schett and Mats with former WTA player Barbara Schett.

"It’s great to win in the end, especially in the fourth and fifth set. He was in control of this match for the first set and a half. The way he lost his way after that shows that there is a difference between him and Federer, Djokovic and Nadal – because you cannot tell if they are playing well or not with their attitude.

"With Dominic, he’s up in the scoreline, suddenly he starts not playing so well and immediately he shows that he’s not happy with his tennis. That is something he has to change and it’s one of the reasons why he has lost in the first round at Wimbledon last year, the US Open last year. He did well at Roland-Garros – last year was a good year but not in the Grand Slams. His attitude in five sets has to be more consistent to me.

"Being a leftie with a one-handed backhand is a bad match-up for Dominic Thiem. It’s pretty easy for a leftie to find Dominic’s backhand on a fast court, but in the end he wins pretty comfortably. He needs to separate himself from his body language on court. It’s about his demeanour on court as it seems he’s a little bit shy compared to the big three that are the best in the world.

"I feel there are more bad matches for him. Let’s say a leftie with a slicing serve to his backhand on a fast court – bad. If you look at Roger, Rafa and Novak – those guys are the greatest on the men’s side of all time, I can’t find a match-up that’s really bad for any of them on any surface, except maybe Nick Kyrgios for Rafa Nadal on a fast court.

"They seem to have the answers, but for Dominic there seems to be the attitude that he knows he could struggle – and there are other match-ups that he doesn’t seem to like. How does he get away with that? Better consistent attitude throughout the match."