The 28-year-old defeated Peru’s Juan Pablo Varillas 6-4, 6-3 in the quarter-finals in Gstaad on Friday to return to the top 200 in the world rankings. On Saturday it’s about Thiem’s second final participation in this event, he won the tournament in 2015. In the semifinals he meets Italian Matteo Berrettini (2) or Spaniard Pedro Martinez (5).
Thiem is getting better and better at the Swiss altitude, which is also important with regard to the home tournament next week in Kitzbühel. In the first duel with the South American Varillas, the 2020 US Open winner took charge from the start. He was mostly able to rely on his serve, caused murmurs in the already well-filled ranks with forehand and backhand point shots and finally laid the basis for the set lead with a break to make it 2-1.
“The pressure is relatively high”
After Thiem Varillas had taken the serve a second time to make it 5: 2, the Lower Austrian temporarily went on the defensive. Nine points in a row went to the opponent, but at 5: 4 from Thiem’s point of view, he tore himself in time and served out. 49 minutes were played. For the 26-year-old Varillas the cards were worse, for the first time in the top 100 in the world rankings and also for the first time on the tour in a semi-final.
For Thiem, in turn, this should become routine again in the future. The tournament winner, who won 17 times on the tour, underlined this ambition in the second round with an early break to make it 1-0, and he doubled again – to make it 4-1. But again the world number 115 succeeded. a rebreak. But Thiem didn’t let anything burn, immediately struck back against the qualifier and ended the game after 1:47 hours.
“I played well yesterday,” Thiem referred to his round of 16 win against Argentinian Federico Delbonis in the ‘On Court’ interview, “and I managed to follow that today. What I didn’t manage to do was to reserve.” He justified the breaks he received with nervousness, because after a long time he was about to reach the semi-finals again. “The pressure is relatively high. I need the points to move up the rankings.”
For his semi-final duel, Thiem already announced that he would be able to enter the game freely. “When I (last week, note) went to Baastad, I didn’t think that I would play quarter-finals there and at least semi-finals there. I’m really happy with the development.” He also had praise for the audience. “Normally there are only a few spectators at games in the morning. There is a full center court early on, which is great.”
Source: Nachrichten
