Australian Open 2021: Dominic Thiem safe in round two
Dominic Thiem has confidently reached the second round at the Australian Open 2021. Last year's finalist defeated Mikhail Kukushkin from Kazakhstan 7: 6 (2), 6: 2 and 6: 3.
by Jens Huiber
last edit: Feb 08, 2021, 06:48 am
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Constant dripping wears away the Kukushkin: And so Dominic Thiem stubbornly knocked on the Kazakhs door from the start, until he became crumbling for the first time in the sixth game. All the more astonishing that Thiem immediately equalized the break to 4: 2 with four mistakes. And let Kukushkin go back to the first sentence. And the situation became more serious: with the next break, the 33-year-old took the lead 6: 5.
Thiem managed to equalize, a tiebreak had to decide the outcome of the first act. And then the favorite really showed up, once showing one of his parade shots - the backhand longline - and won the short decision 7-2.
Next premiere for Thiem
Kukushkin then allowed himself a five-minute toilet break, from which he came back briefly strengthened. Thiem was not irritated by the 2-0 deficit and won six games in a row. The rust that Thiem had shown in his first appearance at the ATP Cup against Matteo Berrettini now seemed to have finally disappeared. Thiem looked lively, ran over most of the stop balls often interspersed by Kukushkin.
Thiem still had to work hard to break the 2-1 break in round three. It should finally pave the way to victory. Kukushkin had to give up his serve once more, Thiem used his first match point to 7: 6 (2), 6: 2 and 6: 3 after 2:40 hours of play.
In the second round, Dominic Thiem has a premiere, as it did against Kukushkin: The number three in the world has not played against Dominik Koepfer or Hugo Dellien to date.
Here is the individual draw for the Australian Open 2021
laver arena