Thiem, a clay-champ understudy, looks ready to take the stage in Paris

At the start of the French Open, Dominic Thiem was asked to name the favorites in the men’s draw.

The 23-year-old Austrian began where he knew he had to, at the top, with Rafael Nadal: “One hundred percent,” Thiem said, “he’s the man to beat here.”

Then he moved on to last year’s finalists: “Novak and Andy, they have so much experience.”

Finally, in a sly way, Thiem brought himself into the conversation: “There are some young guys,” he said, with the hint of a smile, “who could make some good runs here.”

Thiem is a naturally modest and down-to-earth young man, and he’s taken enough beatings at the hands of the Big Four over the years to understand the wisdom of respecting his elders. He lost twice to Nadal on clay this spring, and after getting blown out by Djokovic in Rome, he admitted that the Serb had his number.

Six days into the tournament, Thiem has won his first three matches—over Bernard Tomic, Simone Bolelli and Steve Johnson—without dropping a set. Now it seems appropriate to wonder just how deep this young player’s run will be. Is it time for him to be a little less modest and respectful of his elders?

Thiem has been tentatively anointed as Nadal’s successor at Roland Garros. That doesn’t mean anyone thinks he’s going to win it nine times, of course; but when you see him tee off on a 90-m.p.h. one-handed backhand, it’s hard to imagine he won’t be a force at this tournament for years to come. The event and its city have already played a big role in his career.

“Last year was great,” Thiem said of his run to the semifinals at Roland Garros in 2016; it’s the only time he has gone that deep at a major. “But six years ago I was in the finals in juniors. That was my first big experience in tennis.”

Thiem has played with an increased sense of urgency over the last two months, and you could see that urgency, and his improvement, in his 6-1, 7-6 (4), 6-3 win over Johnson on Friday. Johnson had rightfully been the story of the first week on the men’s side, but Thiem was obviously a step up in class for him. The forehands that Johnson used to overpower his first two opponents now came back faster than they came in.

But we’ve always known about Thiem’s shot-making skills. What some of us wondered was how desperate he was to make the most of those skills. Thiem, who never takes a week off, seemed happy to pick up a paycheck and move on to the next event. There was little sense that he cared about the majors more than he cared about any other event, or that he was trying to peak for them. There was little sense that his defeats hurt him in the way they always hurt the best players—i.e., the ones who expect the most from themselves.

That has changed this spring. In Barcelona, Madrid and Rome, it was Thiem’s competitive skills, rather than his shot-making skills, that impressed the most. In Barcelona, he edged Murray 6-4 in the third set before losing to Nadal in the final. In Madrid, he saved five match points against Grigor Dimitrov and pushed Nadal to the limit in another final. In Rome, he saved match points against Sam Querrey before beating Nadal in the quarters.

In all of these matches, Thiem won first with amazing defense. There was hardly a ball that he couldn’t slide halfway across the court to track down. And then he won with offense. When his back was to the wall, Thiem’s response was to swing out even harder than he usually does (and he already swings as hard as anyone). Because he had nothing left to lose, he was loose enough to make those low-percentage plays work for him over and over again. There has never been any question about his talent; by the time he had chased down Nadal and finally beaten him in Rome, there was no questioning Thiem’s heart anymore, either.

In most ways, Thiem is a wonderful player to watch. The full-court forehand, the wickedly whipped one-handed backhand, the big kick serve that leaps off the court: He makes the routine look spectacular. But because of that he can also be an exhausting player to watch, and I wondered, with his somewhat slight frame, whether he might exhaust himself over the course of the tournament.

So far in Paris, though, Thiem’s new sense of urgency has also translated to a new efficiency. When Johnson broke Thiem to go up 5-4 in the second set, it looked like we could be in for a marathon, and in the past we might have been; Thiem has been known to take the long route to victory. This time, though, he reasserted his superiority immediately.

Next for Thiem is Horacio Zeballos. After that, the hill gets steep: He’s scheduled to face Djokovic in the quarters and Nadal in the semis. A win over one of them would be considered progress, but wins over both shouldn’t be a shock. At 23, Thiem’s apprenticeship to the Big Four on clay should be coming to an end.

Thiem’s maturity as a player has been on display all spring, and his maturity as a person could also be seen on Friday. Sportsmanship has been one of the themes of the French Open so far, and Thiem showed some of his own against Johnson. When the match was over, he gave the American, whose father passed away last month, a pat on the back and a hug.

Thiem the understudy has learned his role well. Is he finally ready to take the stage next week? Does he dare, when he’s asked who the favorites at the French are, to say his own name?

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