After a tough fight: Thiem eliminated in Antwerp

For Filip Misolic, the final round of the tournament in Stockholm against old master Gael Monfils was his last stop. The 22-year-old Styrian lost to the Frenchman, 15 years his senior, 4:6.3:6 in the 250cc event.

Thiem and Hanfmann fought a duel at eye level until shortly before midnight, in which the German was able to make better use of his chances. Thiem missed too many break opportunities. Of the 15 he found in the entire match, the 30-year-old only used two. In the deciding set against his opponent, who was a year older than him, Thiem had 4:2 in mind, missed the chance and immediately conceded the ultimately decisive break.

In the first set, Thiem was unable to compensate for an early loss of serve. Hanfmann finally used his fourth set ball to take the lead. The second round was also competitive, this time with the Austrian coming out on top. Thiem, who reached the semi-finals in Antwerp in 2022, played his games more confidently and got the decisive break to 7:5 against the 56th in the world rankings. Thiem will be in action at the ATP tournament in Vienna next week.

Misolic, who advanced from qualifying in Stockholm to the main competition, surprisingly beat Briton Daniel Evans in the first round. World number 181 came against Monfils. but quickly falling behind. With the score at 2:3, Misolic had the chance for a rebreak, but Monfils won the game and subsequently the first set.

In the second, the former top ten player quickly managed the break to make it 2-1 and didn’t let anything happen after that. After 74 minutes of play, Monfils once again took the service game away from the outsider from Austria for the final score.