Dominic Thiem's "loud" grunts hindered my focus, jokes Hubert Hurkacz

Dominic Thiem's grunting might have played a role in Hubert Hurkacz and Ben Shelton's opening-round doubles loss at the 2023 Madrid Open, the Polish player joked.

After reaching the second round in Monte-Carlo and the quarterfinals in Munich, Thiem kicked off the Masters 1000 event in Madrid with a win over Kyle Edmund on Thursday, April 27. The former World No. 3 broke the Brit four times to beat him 6-4, 6-1 in an hour and 23 minutes on Court Manolo Santana.

On Court 8 nearby, 26-year-old Hurkacz and his doubles partner Shelton were engrossed in their first-round match against Harri Heliovaara and Lloyd Glasspool. The sixth-seeded pair defeated Hurkacz and the American youngster 6-4, 7-6(3) in an hour and 17 minutes.

After winning his match against Edmund, Thiem shared a clip of some of his moments in Madrid so far on social media, saying:

"Hola Madrid! A great week so far."

Hurkacz jumped on the opportunity to troll the 29-year-old Austrian by complaining about the 2020 US Open champion's loud grunts.

"You were grunting so loud that it was disturbing the doubles match that I was playing at the other side of the fence," Hurkacz commented non Thiem's Instagram post.

Thiem has a 7-11 win-loss record in 2023, having been eliminated in the first round of five tournaments, including the Australian Open, BNP Paribas Open, and the Miami Open.

Thiem is on a comeback trail following a long time spent on the sidelines due to injury. In June 2021, he picked up a wrist injury that has seen him miss many months of action.

Since then, the now 91st-ranked player has been trying to get back to his best. He dropped to No. 352 in the rankings in June 2022 but is slowly making his way up the ATP rankings.

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Dominic Thiem: "I used to be very tough to beat on clay, which is not the case anymore"

Dominic Thiem

In his on-court interview after defeating Kyle Edmund in the first round, Dominic Thiem said that the Madrid Open was his best Masters 1000 tournament in terms of results. He previously reached the finals in 2017 and 2018, losing to Rafael Nadal and Alexander Zverev, respectively.

"I love this court, I have great memories here and I've played some great matches here," he said. "In terms of results, this is by far my best ATP Masters 1000 tournament, so it's time to work on that reputation. I used to be very tough to beat on clay, which is not the case anymore, but I feel like I'm getting better and I'm back in shape."

The Austrian will face Stefanos Tsitsipas in the second round on Saturday, April 29. He leads 5-3 in the head-to-head against the World No. 5.