After almost three hours, he fell backwards on the floor as if he had just won the Vienna Stadthallen tennis tournament. Even though Dominic Thiem was only able to win the first round of the Erste Bank Open against the American Tommy Paul on Tuesday after defending two match balls 2: 6, 7: 6 (2), 7: 6 (6), he celebrated 29-year-old in front of a full house one of his biggest wins since his comeback after the wrist injury. Today (second match after 2 p.m., live on ServusTV and ORF1) we face Daniil Medvedev, who defeated Nikolos Bassilashvili 6-2, 6-2 yesterday.
But before that, Thiem had to digest the thriller against Paul. “I would never have won the match without the energy from the audience,” said Thiem afterwards. The Lower Austrian pulled his head out of the noose with an energetic performance and the luck of the brave. After clearly losing the first set, the decisive turnaround came in the tie-break of the second round. And yet he was close to defeat again in the final set. First he had to make up a 2:5 deficit, then fend off two match points in the tie-break before he went to the handshake as the winner and enjoyed the standing ovations in the hall.
The special jubilation he last made at his US Open triumph in 2020 was justified. “I’ve certainly never done that after a first-round win,” said Thiem. “I only ever do that at very, very special moments – when I feel like this wasn’t an everyday match. Just because of this win all those difficult months paid off. It’s not often that everyone is on your side in the hall.”
That will be the case again today. The task is much more difficult. He currently leads 3:2 head-to-head against the top seeded Medvedev. If Thiem wins, he would be back in the top 100 in the world. If it doesn’t work, he would continue on Saturday in the qualification for the Masters in Paris.
Just one set at ball height
Thiem is playing the Austrian solo entertainer again this Thursday in Vienna, as so often in the past. After Filip Misolic and Jurij Rodionov, who lost 4:6 and 4:6 against Denis Shapovalov on Tuesday, Dennis Novak was also hit yesterday. He kept up well with the Greek against the number two of the tournament, Stefanos Tsitsipas, at 6: 7 (2), 2: 6 in the first set, but then failed due to too many mistakes of his own.
Source: Nachrichten
