“My last win was in Rome 2021, it feels like a different world. A lot of things happened after that. It was a difficult time for me and my tennis.” In the winner’s interview, which Dominic Thiem gave yesterday after the 3: 6, 6: 1, 7: 6 (5) success over the Finn Emil Ruusuvuori in the first round of the ATP250 tournament in Bastad, Sweden, the relief of the 28th -year-olds noticeably. For the Lower Austrian it was a long-awaited sense of achievement 14 months after his last tour victory. At the Challenger in Salzburg he celebrated his first victory after more than 400 days last week, but this tournament did not have the international format of the ATP tour.
Thiem was allowed to claim a starting place in Bastad’s main draw thanks to his “protected ranking”. On Center Court he had to digest an early 0:3 deficit and the loss of the first set. “It was a very difficult game. I didn’t have a good start,” analyzed Thiem. He wanted to act powerfully, but was still too prone to errors against number 43 in the ATP ranking. The former US Open winner improved as the game progressed. After the match point in the tie-break of the third set – Ruusuvuori made a double mistake – he did not exuberantly celebrate and was also self-critical. “It was difficult to decide the match in the end. I have to control my nerves a little better,” said the current number 339 in the world rankings.
In the round of 16 this Wednesday, Thiem meets the Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut, who is number four in Sweden and who is quite far ahead of the Lower Austrian in the ranking, namely in 20th place.
Source: Nachrichten
