Erste Bank Open: Dominic Thiem in Vienna - not afraid of left-handers
Dominic Thiem meets Fernando Verdasco on Thursday in the second round of the Erste Bank Open in Vienna. Basically, the experiences with left-handers this season are not bad.
by Jens Huiber
last edit: Oct 23, 2019, 12:51 pm
By Jens Huiber from the Wiener Stadthalle
Dominic Thiem changed a bit on the trail of Roger Federer on Tuesday evening. Sporty and at all. Like the Swiss, Thiem also started in his home event this week as a tournament favorite, as well as Federer, the Austrian made his first task confidently behind. Naturally had some problems against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga more than Federer against Peter Gokowczyk, both are still represented in the respective tableaux.
The record against Tsonga stands for Thiem now in a win and two defeats, against Fernando Verdasco, his next task, the sense of achievement is still missing. Thiem was asked why this was so in his press conference. Spontaneous answer: Because Verdasco acts as a left-hander. Although Thiem likes to play against lefties, he still lacks the possibilities of comparison with this special kind of colleague. Roger Federer had said similar things before his semi-final at this year's French Open against Rafael Nadal: The biggest problem for him is to prepare for the serve of Rafa.
Thiem with good record against left-handers
The fact that Dominic Thiem finds a left-hander as sparring partner on Wednesday is unlikely. With Guido Pella and Denis Shapovalov he has trained from time to time in the current season - the Argentine, however, has already said goodbye to a defeat against Guido Pella from Vienna, Shapovalov in turn had to deal with Pablo Carreno Busta professional.
Thiem's appearance against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was the 57th of the year, including the two matches at the Laver Cup in Geneva. 41 victories are current in the balance sheet. The number of encounters against left-handers, however, is manageable: Only nine games were there, against Shapovalov (two successes) and Rafael Nadal (one win, one defeat) had Thiem ran twice. There were victories against Albert Ramos-Vinolas (and in the final of Kitzbühel), Guido Pella, Martin Klizan and Maximilian Marterer. Only Fernando Verdasco inflicted a defeat on the Austrian in Rome.
Goodbye to Thomas Muster
A 7: 2 balance is therefore worthy of all honors, with the support of the audience should it work at the Erste Bank Open against Fernando Verdasco finally with the first success. In fact, the city hall was filled on Tuesday like rarely in a first-round match. Only in 2011 had the atmosphere been comparable, Thiem said after the Tsonga success. But the viewers did not come mainly because of him: After all, Thomas Muster finally had to say goodbye. A left-hander.