Diriyah Tennis Cup: Dominic Thiem opens against Alexander Zverev
Dominic Thiem will face returneeAlexander Zverev at the Diriyah Tennis Cup in Saudi Arabia on Thursday.
by Nikolaus Fink
last edit: Dec 08, 2022, 12:33 am
A special task awaits Dominic Thiem at the start of the Diriyah Tennis Cup. In the first round ( Thursday, from around 10:30 a.m. in the tennisnet live ticker ), the Austrian will meet his good friend Alexander Zverev , who will celebrate his comeback at the controversial show tournament in Saudi Arabia after a six-month injury break.
For Thiem, Saudi Arabia is about getting the finishing touches for the coming season. "I want to play every match to the full so that I can catch up on the lack of match practice until Australia," said the 2020 US Open winner before the tournament started. However, the 29-year-old was satisfied with the preparations so far.
Thiem against Medvedev again?
How far Thiem is already will be visible to the public for the first time on Wednesday. He made his last appearance so far at the end of October at the ATP 500 tournament in Vienna, where he lost in two sets to Daniil Medvedev. Thiem would also meet the Russians in Saudi Arabia if he prevailed against Zverev. In the head-to-head against the German Olympic champion, the Austrian leads 8:3.
Meanwhile, the top seeded player at the Diriyah Tennis Cup is Stefanos Tsitsipas. Also at the start are Andrey Rublev, Taylor Fritz, Nick Kyrgios, Stan Wawrinka, Hubert Hurkacz, Dominic Stricker, Matteo Berrettini and Cameron Norrie. The winner of the tournament will receive $1 million.