Thiem reached the semi-finals at the Masters tournament in Madrid last year. The associated 360 world ranking points fell out of the ranking last week. The chance to defend at least part of it was missed by the Lower Austrian who lost the first round against the British Andy Murray. “It’s the logical consequence of how the ranking works,” said the 2020 US Open winner on his relapse.
Thiem now has a manageable number of points in the annual ranking with 375 points and is only 162nd in the ranking. Thiem’s crash means a historic low for Austrian tennis: for the first time since April 1986 no Austrian represented in the top 100 anymore. At that time, Thomas Muster was the best domestic player in 119th place, even before his rise to 1st place had begun.
Despite his poor placement, Thiem, who has a “protected ranking” from sixth place to at the time of his wrist injury in June 2021, to play in the main ATP tournaments. The Lichtenwörther will already be playing today (not before 7 p.m.) at the next Masters tournament in Rome. However, the first round lot is thankless with Fabio Fognini. Thiem leads 3-1 in a direct duel, but the moody Italian is always capable of top performances, especially in front of his own fans.
Rodionov new number one
Nevertheless, there was good news from local men’s tennis last week: At the ATP Challenger tournament in Mauthausen, which was held for the first time, Jurij Rodionov won the final against the Czech Jiri Lehecka with a two-set victory. It was the fifth title win in this category for the 23-year-old from Lower Austria, who was rewarded with 100 world ranking points and a new career high.
The ATP computer now leads the Nuremberg native to position 130, making Rodionov Austria’s new number one. “I couldn’t be happier. With the spectators, with a home crowd, I couldn’t wish for more. I’m mega happy,” said the left-hander, who will now try to fight their way into the main competition at the French Open.
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Source: Nachrichten
