ATP Indian Wells: Dominic Thiem is always looking forward to Gilles Simon
Dominic Thiem meets in the third round of the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Indian Wells against a man against whom he has an 8-2 record: Gilles Simon from France. The match was scheduled as the fourth after 7 p.m. in stage 3 (live on SKY and in our match tracker).
by tennisnet.com
last edit: Mar 11, 2019, 08:57 am
Dominic Thiem cleaned up a few years ago in Roland Garros with the fact that the top players only deal with their next opponents. And not with the entire branch on which they were drawn. In any case, Thiem always knew exactly who would be in the upcoming rounds - and in the specific case of the ATP Masters 1000 tournament from Indian Wells, the prospects of Austria's number one should at least not give rise to sleepless nights.
In lap three, Gilles Simon, one of Thiem's favorite opponents, is waiting, after which the draw had actually expected Borna Coric, but the Croatian said goodbye to Methuselah Ivo Karlovic. On the other hand, he will play against Prajnesh Gunneswaran from India on Monday (local time) and not against the always dangerous Nikoloz Basilashvili as planned.
Thiem has always been victorious against Simon since 2014
Future music, nevertheless. In any case, Gilles Simon has been waiting for a victory against Dominic Thiem since 2014, in Toronto the Frenchman once put 2-1 in his personal record against the Lichtenwörther. The seven matches since then, however, all went to Thiem, sometimes smoother (like the youngest at the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Paris), sometimes a little happier than in the Lyon final in 2018. Simon was on a solid path to Tournament victory, Thiem considered briefly, got set two in the tie break and pulled through his game.
How good the shape of the Austrian number one actually is at the moment is difficult to classify. Jordan Thompson, who is also a good Thiem, had his chances in round two, although no chance of a surprise. However, the fact that Thiem, like in Buenos Aires against Diego Schwartzman, had problems reserving the match should be a small alarm signal.
Djokovic could wait in the quarter-finals
On the other hand, conditions in Indian Wells Thiem seem to be accommodating. The ball jumps high, so the rubber takes the Austrian's spin properly. The backhand longline also worked exceptionally well against Thompson, so it's set up for the round of 16.
And if Dominic Thiem looks now on his way in the California desert, then a meeting with Novak Djokovic could be in the round of eight. Unless the Serbian world ranking first fails, for example against Philipp Kohlschreiber, Thiem's buddy. It can be assumed that the Austrian could also pray down his path through the first Masters of the year.