Erste Bank Open: Dominic Thiem beats Vitaliy Sachko despite poor performance
After Novak Djokovic , the second top favorite for the title at the Erste Bank Open also started the tournament successfully. Dominic Thiem had to fight more in his opening match against Vitaliy Sachko than he would have liked, but won 6: 4 and 7: 5 ( you can read the match here in the live ticker ).
by Michael Rothschädl
last edit: Oct 27, 2020, 08:19 pm
By Michael Rothschädl from the Wiener Stadthalle
In retrospect, Dominic Thiem will probably be happy to have "not analyzed too much" Kei Nishikori before the alleged first round duel, as he explained in the opening press conference. On Monday evening - almost exactly at the same time as the Austrian served on the orphaned NextGen court with Dennis Novak in the double competition - the Japanese had to announce that he would not be able to start due to an injury. For him, the world number 529 moved. Vitaliy Sachko entered the field as a lucky loser.
A correspondingly clear victory was expected by those 1000 lucky ones who secured a ticket for the night session on the "THIEMstag", branded especially for the local hero, to watch the crowd favorite Dominic Thiem at work. For the first time after his previous year's success, the newly crowned US Open winner was allowed to step onto the Center Court of the Wiener Stadthalle as defending champion.
Thiem starts brilliantly
The class difference between the two players became clear early in this game, Sachko had to risk a lot in order to be able to keep up with Dominic Thiem's high intensity from the baseline - and accordingly produced many mistakes. The Austrian, on the other hand, even had the chance to try a few things and still quickly took a 3-0 lead.
An average performance should be enough for the Lichtenwörther in this initial phase to be able to keep Vitaliy Sachko at a distance at all times. As soon as the Austrian pressed something with his strong forehand, the Ukrainian usually made the mistake. That should be reflected on the scoreboard a little later, Dominic Thiem increased the number of strokes again in the sixth game and got another break with a backhand winner after a remarkable rally.
Thiem still with the set win
When sentence one seemed already decided, the thread broke completely in the world number three. Sachko managed a rebreak, the Ukrainian managed his next service game with confidence and even managed another rebreak - suddenly everything was back on track. The world number 529. then even had two chances to make it 5: 5 on his own serve, but had to watch how Dominic Thiem was able to thwart both and a little later with a fine inside-out forehand winner was still able to win set one.
Who would have thought that this would break the resistance of the Ukrainian Lucky Loser, was far from it. Sachko remained vicious at the beginning of the second set, benefited from numerous mistakes made by the third in the world ranking and took the break for the first time in this match. Especially with the backhand, Dominic Thiem looked anything but stable and kept his opponent in the game so well. But Sachko also kept throwing in unforced errors, which is why Dominic Thiem came to the rebreak without great effort.
Another rearing up from Sachko
The Austrian now seemed to have caught up again, played his service easily and broke Vitaliy Sachko one more time - this time to zero. With a sovereign service game, Thiem made it 4-1 a little later. The young Ukrainian should also have an answer to this setback, again it was a number of no-nonsense mistakes at Dominic Thiem that brought Sachko the new rebreak.
Vitaliy Sachko now played lively tennis at times, making life difficult for the Austrian, especially with a good defensive performance. Also because he always wanted a little too much on the last stroke. After the next negative series, Thiem then turned 5: 4 with a sovereign service game - Sachko had to serve against the loss of the match. The 23-year-old was also able to cope with this pressure and made it 5: 5 in a competitive game. At least as a server, Thiem had now returned to the court, the Austrian won the 6: 5 quite safely. But now the nerves of the young Ukrainian couldn't stand any longer, Thiem increased the number of strokes again and used his second match point after a little over an hour and 45 minutes. The town hall was raging.
Thiem now against Wawrinka or Garin
"It is an unbelievable feeling to play in such a mood in such a difficult time as this one, to come home to one of the most important tournaments for me," said Dominic Thiem after his first round win. "I've seen a bit of his previous matches. For me it was the first match after Paris, so it's never easy to play the first match again. Especially against an opponent I don't know. I'm sure my difficulties had to get into the game, but in general I'm satisfied, it was a lot of fun again. "
For Dominic Thiem, the second round is against the winner of the game between Stan Wawrinka and Cristian Garin, who will end the game day at the Center Court in the Wiener Stadthalle directly after the Austrian. In the quarter-finals, there could be a big clash with Andrey Rublev , who had presented himself in such outstanding form in recent weeks and has already won four titles in 2020.
Here you can read Dominic Thiem's opening victory in our live ticker