ATP Gstaad: Dominic Thiem wins against Delbonis and is in the quarterfinals
Dominic Thiem reached the quarterfinals at the ATP 250 tournament in Gstaad. In a catch-up game on Wednesday, he beat Argentinian Federico Delbonis 7: 6 (6) and 6: 3.
by Florian Goosmann
last edit: Jul 21, 2022, 01:10 pm
It was a game of patience, lots of spin and looking for your opponent's backhand. Both players played little to risk, built well and waited for the short ball to take the initiative.
A terrible service game by Delbonis (but with long returns from Thiem) brought the Austrian the first break (zero); at 5:3, however, Delbonis worked his way up. Thiem first turned a 0:40, but with the third break chance against himself he was unlucky that Delbonis' emergency return fell on the edge of the net and became unreachable. He then showed himself to be unassailable when he served, even in the first tie-break phase - the devious smash for a possible 6:3 could still lag behind him. But Thiem smelled air again, managed to equalize 6: 6 with a wonderful passing shot and got the first round after all.
A little playful slack in the second set, but Thiem took the chance to break to 2: 1, and in the end he managed to win another match. His famous forehand inside-out could now also be seen more often - even if Thiem was still concerned about safety and percent tennis, rightly so, of course.
"The decisive point was of course the repelled set ball, with the backhand passing ball along the line," said Thiem. "Every win is currently crucial. And my box gives me a lot of energy."
The two times two matches won in a row "give me a lot of self-confidence", said Thiem looking back on the past week in Bastad.
Here you can read the match in the live ticker!
Who is the next Thiem opponent?
Thiem now meets Juan Pablo Varillas, who won the canceled game against Roberto Bautista Agut, who was seeded three, 7: 6 (3), 7: 5.
Delbonis, on the other hand, is now slowly needing good results: He was still in the top 50 at the beginning of the year, but has now slipped to 125th place after the points for the Hamburg semi-finals from 2021 were recently deducted.
Thiem won the tournament in Gstaad in 2015.