Australian Open: Dominic Thiem now against Taylor Fritz
Dominic Thiem won a place in the third round of the Australian Open 2020 with a five-set win against Alex Bolt. There the Austrian meets Taylor Fritz, who was able to defeat Thiem’s fear opponent Kevin Anderson after 0: 2 set deficit.
by Jens Huiber
last edit: Jan 23, 2020, 12:49 pm
The Australian Open come early in the year, so it's important to work well in the off-season. That's how Dominic Thiem put it after his five-set win against Alex Bolt on the court in the Melbourne Arena. Well, physical fitness will not fail this year to attack the second week of the first major of the year, that much is certain. In contrast to the appearance a year ago, when Thiem couldn't finish his game against Alexei Popyrin.
But sometimes a single game is enough to give a whole match a new twist. Just as the tenth in the second round, in which Thiem sloppily surrendered his serve, the 2-0 set lead gave up a little lightly. He then had to fight with demons, Thiem also explained in an interview with ServusTV, when the victory was finally sealed with two sovereign final chords. It remains to be determined whether and how Nicolas Massu and Thomas Muster helped him to drive out these demons.
Thiem beats Fritz at the US Open
In any case, Thiem is in the third round of a Grand Slam tournament, which was only granted to him in Roland Garros last year for various reasons, mainly for health reasons. It is all the more remarkable that the 26-year-old then ended the 2020 season as fourth best worldwide. How to evaluate the performance against the somewhat unorthodox Bolt, who sometimes plays big with the audience in the back, will only become clear on Saturday.
Even if fear opponent Kevin Anderson will not be the opponent, but Taylor Fritz. The American made a remarkable comeback and came back into the match after a 0: 2 set deficit. Anderson was already ahead with a break in the third set. Thiem won the two previous matches at Grand Slam tournaments against Fritz, in 2017 and 2018 at the US Open. Fritz was able to retaliate a little last fall and won the clash at the Laver Cup in Geneva. However, only best-of-three is played there. And instead of the third set a match tie break.
Thiem can still go into the match with some confidence, as the conditions speak more for the Austrian, as Thiem also explicitly stated again. "The places are rather medium-fast, but the balls become fluffy after two or three games." A slight disadvantage for the good server Taylor Fritz. And after five long sentences, Fritz shouldn't go fresh into the third-round matchup either.
Here is the single tableau for men
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