Dominic Thiem's father launches new tennis project in Austria

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Wolfgang Thiem, the father of World No. 3 tennis star Dominic Thiem, has opened a new tennis academy in Austria and says he wants to produce the best players in the country, according to the Kurier website. His latest project is the "Austrian Tennis Committee" which was formalized on Wednesday at a tennis club in Vienna Alterlaa.

Barbara Muhr, who had ran in the election to become president of the Austrian Tennis Association (OTV), will act as president of this new project. Wolfgang Thiem is likely to be the sports director under Muhr . The project aims to train 14- to 18-year-olds in the country to start with.

"We want to train the best in the country," says Wolfgang Thiem , "and soon will be Austrian champions in every age group." The project is seen as a competition to the OTV's Sudstadt model where Dominic Thiem was trained.

Wolfgang left there as a trainer last year after some differences with the association. He says he also wants to focus on the women players in Austria and get them to the Grand Slam level. Thiem is ranked a career-high No. 3 in the world rankings.

He is the second highest-ranked Austrian player in history, behind Thomas Muster, who reached No. 1 in 1996. Thiem has won 16 ATP Tour singles titles and reached three Grand Slam finals so far in his career, including this year's Australian Open final where he lost in five close sets to World No. 1 Novak Djokovic.