Australian Open: Dominic Thiem "satisfied" with start - Alex Bolt is waiting in lap two
Dominic Thiem made a confident start to the Australian Open. After the smooth three-set win over Adrian Mannarino , it is now in the second round against local hero Alex Bolt.
by Nikolaus Fink
last edit: Jan 21, 2020, 07:25 pm
Dominic Thiem can live more than well with his opening in this year's Australian Open. Although the Austrian made one or two mistakes too much in the match against Adrian Mannarino, especially in the second set, in the end there was a clear 6: 3, 7: 5 and 6: 2 success.
After the eighth win in the eighth match against the Frenchman, the Austrian said: "I'm already satisfied. I was solid from the start, except for a little wobble in the second set." At 4: 3, the fifth in the world rankings had to take a break and lose a little later against losing the set, but Thiem kept his nerve and won the next three games.
Afterwards, the audience in the Margaret Court Arena saw a very dominant Thiem, who could exert more and more pressure, especially with the forehand. "It was a typical first round match against an opponent that I like. Nevertheless, it was close," said the 26-year-old dryly summarizing his appearance.
Bolt 2019 with only three wins
In the second round, Thiem is now going against a local hero as in the previous year. The Lichtenwörther had to give up against Alexei Popyrin twelve months ago , in 2020 Thiem naturally wants to avoid a new exit in the round of 64 - the signs against Alex Bolt are not too bad for that.
Although the Australian struggled in five sets in his first round game Alber Ramos-Vinolas, the 27-year-old is only 140th in the world rankings and only celebrated three successes on the ATP tour last year.
Thiem again against a left-hander
In addition, Thiem has the advantage that he already met a left-hander with Adrian Mannarino in the first round and the preparation for the game will therefore look quite similar - with Thomas Muster the 26-year-old also has a "Leftty" as a coach.
There really shouldn't be much in the way of success on Thursday (live on ServusTV). After the opening success, Thiem was self-critical: "There were still a few things that should be improved." The Austrian tennis fans would not mind if he already succeeded against Alex Bolt.
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