Australian Open: Dominic Thiem trembles in the second round
The French Open finalist defeated French Benoit Paire 6: 4, 6: 3, 5: 7, 1: 6, 6: 3 in his opening game in Melbourne after almost a 2: 0 set lead playful. It was Thiem's first win of the season after four losses. Click here for the live ticker .
by Ulrike Weinrich from Melbourne
last edit: Jan 15, 2019, 04:22 pm
After 3:42 hours, the Lichtenwörther converted his fourth match ball in the Margaret Court Arena - and became a reveler. At the end of the game it was 2.08 a.m. local time.
"I would have liked it to have been faster. But I wanted too much after the first two sets, so I paid for it. In the fifth set I was ready to fight," said Thiem.
In the end there was still a good atmosphere in his box, but above all relief, because early knockout was quite possible. Coach Günter Bresnik had warned Paire as a "surprise bag". "Every third ball of his is a stop," he had said of the world's quirky number 61.
Thiem struggled with his serve
After a balanced start, the quality of the "dominator" initially prevailed more and more. Although Thiem had problems with the service (13 double faults), he took the lead with 2-0 sets, but then had to accept the connection. Ultimately, he had the upper hand on a mild summer night.
On Thursday, Thiem, who is in seventh place, meets wildcard holder Alexei Popyrin (Australia), who eliminated Hamburg's Mischa Zverev 7-5, 7-6 (9-7), 6-4. At the "Happy Slam" on the Yarra River, the Austrian had last been in the round of 16 twice in a row.
Before the eyes of his girlfriend Kristina Mladenovic, who had left the women's competition the day before, Thiem had to go three times in his first and seven-minute service game. It was a pointer, because Paire didn't make it easy for him.
The "Dominator" was initially more stable
The favorite was able to use his first breakball for 4: 2, but Thiem immediately lost his serve for the first time. During the following change of sides, he gestured in the direction of his box and struggled with his swinging movement while servicing.
But a little later, and after just under an hour of play, the Bresnik protégé benefited from a backhand mistake by the Frenchman on his fourth set ball, which looked increasingly annoyed and later also threw his racket.
Thiem, however, appeared more and more stable with increasing playing time and used his one-handed backhand profitably again and again. "Domi" recovered well from an early break in the second round and also brought this sentence home.
The excellent server Paire (21 aces) did not give up and won set three with a net roller. But it was not undeserved because he acted more consistently than his opponent, who could not use two breakballs in the 3: 3 and let the right-hander from Avignon come back into the match.
As a result, nothing more came together at Thiem. He was behind 0: 5 quickly and seemed to speculate on his physical advantage. However, the 25-year-old looked battered.
The preliminary decision in the fifth set was made when Thiem relieved the French from their own 5-3 lead.
Thiem's start to the season had been anything but sparkling. After the three defeats at the "Mubadala World Tennis Championship" in Abu Dhabi against the Russian Karen Khachanov (twice) and the South Korean Hyeon Chung, Thiem also had his opening game at the ATP tournament in Doha against Pierre-Hugues Herbert (France) ) set in the sand (3: 6, 5: 7).
Don't panic in "Team Thiem" - New balls as an advantage
But the "Team Thiem" didn't panic in the Melbourne days. Business as usual - in a way. Not least because Bresnik always stays calm.
Incidentally, the 57-year-old believes that the new Dunlop balls are more of an advantage for the Paris finalists, because the felt copies of this brand are "quick to open" and are therefore also slower than the previous model.