The 28-year-old from Lower Austria, who won his first Grand Slam title in Flushing Meadows two years ago, lost 5: 7.1: 6.7: 5.3 to the number 12 seeded Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta on Monday :6. After his wrist injury, Thiem was the current number 211 only thanks to a wildcard in the main draw of the last tennis Grand Slam tournament of the year.
However, Austria’s only individual representative in New York was not dissatisfied. “The whole match wasn’t bad at all. It was probably the best since Paris in terms of intensity and hits. There are a lot of good things to take away from this match,” said Thiem after the 3:18 hour match the press conference. “Anyone who thought I was the favorite today was far from reality,” Thiem clarified. His opponent is playing a great season. “He won Montreal, he’s a two-time semi-finalist here and I’m still in the process of coming back.”
Thiem only played his fourth hard court match since March 2021 and was last eliminated by Winston-Salem in the round of 16. Since his comeback on the ATP tour since last April, he has now had ten wins and ten defeats (without Challenger). His best result since his return is the Gstaad semi-final.
Thiem got off to a strong start in his first match in Flushing Meadows since winning the title in 2020. A break right in the opening game put the Lichtenwörther in the lead by up to 4: 2, but the Spaniard managed the rebreak in the eighth game to make it 4: 4 . At 5: 4 Carreno Busta and 15:40 on serve Thiem had the world number 15. his first two set balls, which Thiem fended off and equalized to make it 5: 5.
At 5: 6, Thiem was clearly on course for a tiebreak when he dictated a rally at 40:30, but this had to be interrupted because of a napkin blown in by the wind. Thiem promptly made a double mistake when repeating the rally and then had to give up the set 5: 7 after 64 minutes.
“The first set was a bit of a reflection of the whole match, there were really good things in it. For example, the forehand in the first game in which I broke it was the best forehand in a long time,” Thiem recalled. Even with the rebreak and the break to 5: 7, the pace and aggressiveness were mostly right. “The forehand just went out, so the whole match dragged on.”
Carreno Busta kept the momentum after set one, Thiem had to give up his serve at 0: 1 to make it 0: 2. It continued in this key, for Thiem there was nothing more to get in this sentence. After losing seven games en suite (from 5: 5 to 0: 5), Thiem at least managed the game of honor before Carreno Busta used his second set ball after 98 minutes to make it 6: 1.
step forward
“Of course the second set wasn’t good, I slacked off a bit, but the intensity of the third and fourth sets was very good again,” analyzed Thiem. It was not to be expected that 15 minutes later Thiem would be 3-0 in the third set. Carreno Busta managed the rebreak to make it 2:3, but the 31-year-old had to give up his serve again to make it 2:4. Thiem made it 5: 2 to zero. Then Thiem seemed more tense again and let his opponent back into the sentence. It continued to be faulty and inconsistent, Thiem gave up his lead as in the first set, the 4-2 lead. Fabulous world-class shots alternated with unforced errors, but Thiem fought his way 6: 5 and after 2:33 hours he managed to win the first set to 7: 5.
The tough baseline duels continued in the fourth set, but it was Carreno Busta who took command again. After a missed breakball to make it 2-0 by Thiem, the favored Spaniard used his second chance to make it 3-2. The 1.88 m man confirmed the break to 4: 2 – and this time there was no turning back. Carreno Busta celebrated his second victory in the tenth duel with Thiem.
In the fourth sentence it was the same as in the first, said Thiem. “The one (breaking) chance where he served well and then I had the feeling that it was an open match. Then at 2:2 and 40:15 I make three forehand errors in a row, where the aggression fits and I’m doing the right thing, but he just doesn’t go in,” quarreled the 17-time ATP tournament winner.
Overall, it was a step forward for Thiem. The four-time major finalist still lacks consistency, but the shots are more and more reminiscent of his best times. A Thiem in this form would probably have reached the second round against many other competitors. In any case, the performance was no longer comparable to his Grand Slam debacle at the French Open last May.
He left it open how things will continue for Thiem. For the time being, only the tournament appearances in Metz (from September 19th) and Tel Aviv (September 26th) as well as in the Wiener Stadthalle (October 24th) are fixed.
Source: Nachrichten
