ATP Rio de Janeiro: Dominic Thiem narrowly loses to Thiago Monteiro
The Austrian Dominic Thiem has to accept a narrow defeat in the first round of the ATP clay court tournament in Rio de Janeiro against Thiago Monteiro .
by Stefan Bergmann
last edit: Feb 21, 2023, 02:10 am
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Another setback for Dominic Thiem at the ATP World Tour 500 tournament in Rio de Janeiro: The Austrian had to play against local hero Thiago Monteiro after 2:44 hours of play in the first round of the highly endowed clay court tournament in the Brazilian metropolis 1:6, 6:3, 6:7 (2) beaten. For the US Open champion of 2020 it means waiting for the second match triumph of the season. The South American, on the other hand, can look forward to a possible duel with second-seeded British player Cameron Norrie, who first has to get rid of lucky loser Juan Manuel Cherundolo.
Before the match, brother Moritz, who recently took over the management agenda of the former world number three, gave tennisnet.com hope: "Dominic is fine. The import today was good, I was really surprised, things have definitely progressed - even in the last few weeks. The Monteiro is playing very unpleasantly, we'll see."
Getting up on the positive
The conceivably narrow defeat against the 28-year-old world number 83rd, which is another wound on Thiem's maltreated soul, is all the more bitter after Austria's number one in Buenos Aires last week after a promising first round victory over the Slovak Alex Molcan a sensitive two-set - lost to the admittedly strong Peruvian Juan Pablo Varillas.
However: Thiem showed a very good performance in sets two and three against a Monteiro who ended up playing unleashed. Especially on the strong rallies, which in the end were often marked by a lack of self-confidence, the Lower Austrian has to straighten up. The playful tool is obviously there, now the head has to believe in it.
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It should also be said that Rio de Janeiro is rather mixed soil for the Lichtenwörther. He was able to win the biggest ATP tour event in South America in 2017 and reached the semifinals a year earlier. As in 2018, 2020 had already ended in the quarterfinals, back then after a disappointing performance against the Italian Gianluca Mager, who was ATP ranked 128 at the time. In 2019, the ex-world number three failed at the beginning of the Serb Lasso Djere in two clear sentences.