Now he will face Facundo Bagnis in the round of 16 on Thursday. The Argentine, who lost the first round against Dennis Novak at Wimbledon last week, is ranked 102nd in the world. “A very, very nice feeling that I haven’t had for a long time,” Thiem breathed a sigh of relief in the on-site interview. “It was difficult in general, I knew I had to perform well. And I managed to do that for the most part. But the most important thing was that I was able to cross the finish line once.”
In the eighth tournament after his tough wrist injury, the second at Challenger level, Thiem – in front of a full house in the Salzburg Volksgarten – was finally able to celebrate again. It was a first step backwards for the Lichtenwörther, who has since dropped to 346th place in the world rankings. Even if the victory was by no means easy. Because the 20-year-old Misolic, number 210 in the world rankings and thus the third-best ÖTV player, made it anything but easy for his opponent, who was eight years his senior.
About a month and a half after his last appearance in Paris, Thiem showed improvement, especially the forehand, which suffered from the tough wrist injury, seemed more precise. Misolic, on the other hand, demonstrated his improving form as well as his strong nerves, fended off numerous breakballs in the first set and only got a little out of step after a break in treatment due to chest pains with his own 4: 3 lead.
Thiem finally opened the door to winning the set with the break to 5: 4 and also started the second round ideally with another break. But the momentum remained unused. Misolic immediately took the serve from Thiem to make it 1-1 and even made it 3-1 with his second break. Thiem was now visibly struggling with his inconsistent game, the shots were significantly less accurate. He missed three break chances to shorten the lead to 3: 4, and at 3: 5 he even had to fend off two set balls. But Thiem made the break, made it 5: 5 and played more firmly after eight shaky games. The veteran let another break follow and finally served to win the match.
Lukas Neumayer, who defeated Misolic in the final of the state championships on Sunday, is also in the round of 16 after beating former top ten player Gilles Simon (FRA) 6:2,6:4. The 19-year-old local hero now meets top seeded Frenchman Arthur Rinderknech.
With Dennis Novak and Maximilian Neuchrist, two other red-white-red players progressed. Novak is dealing with the number two seeded Serb Dusan Lajovic. Neuchrist’s opponent is Spain’s No. 4 in the tournament, Roberto Carballes Baena. Lucas Miedler, on the other hand, was eliminated. Jurij Rodionov and Sebastian Ofner were already defeated in their first round matches on Monday.
Source: Nachrichten
