French Open: Combative Dominic Thiem beats Marin Cilic in three sets
Dominic Thiem is in the second round of the French Open. The Austrian prevailed in a hard-fought game 6: 4, 6: 3 and 6: 3 against the difficult starter Marin Cilic ( the match can be found in ourlive ticker ). In the next round, Thiem meets Jack Sock.
by Michael Rothschädl
last edit: Sep 28, 2020, 02:59 pm
"I'm preparing for a long fight", Dominic Thiem had announced before his first round duel at the French Open 2020 with Marin Cilic, trying to emphasize the class of his opponent at every opportunity. Cilic is a "champion" who knows exactly how to play a Grand Slam tournament. Thiem had to defuse that class almost three weeks ago when he was able to bring down the US Open winner from 2014 in four contested sets.
Now the omens were clearly different, Thiem came fresh from his well-deserved vacation in the French capital - with two mentally and physically strenuous Grand Slam weeks in his legs. After losing against the Austrian, Cilic started at the ATP Masters 1000 event in Rome, where he was able to collect enough match practice on the red ashes in three games.
Match practice that Dominic Thiem does not have to show, but the tailwind to have fulfilled his lifelong dream of winning a Grand Slam title. The Austrian also started his first round duel with Cilic with confidence, grabbing his opponent's serve in the first game of the match. But he was the much more active man on the field, especially in the initial phase, and managed the rebound in the process.
Contested sentence one to Thiem
As a result, it stayed at a fairly moderate level on serve before Cilic began to wobble at the score of 4: 4. After a completely avoidable forehand error from the half-field, Dominic Thiem got a breakball, which the Austrian was able to use with a dream return. Although the next game smelled of the renewed immediate rebreak, Thiem was able to defuse three breakballs - partly with the strong help of Cilic - and secured set one with his first set ball.
At the start of the second round, Cilic looked visibly touched by his self-fall at the end of the first sentence. The Croatian scattered a lot and helped Thiem to get off to a dream start: The Austrian made the break to 1-0, was able to confirm this and quickly pulled away 3-1. Then the 27-year-old failed to make things clear in this second set and gave Cilic a 0:40 on serve.
Sentence two clearly to Thiem
At the end of the second round this changed little, a Marin Cilic, who was now much too error-prone, was no longer able to turn the trend. Rather, the world number 40 cashed. Another break - Dominic Thiem used his third set ball to lead 6: 4 and 6: 3 after a remarkable rally. As in the first sentence, Thiem often used the backhand slice, his Croatian counterpart did not find an adequate recipe in the second round and scattered too clearly, especially with the forehand.
A variation that Dominic Thiem also showed at the start of the third set. With the break, the Austrian actually had the chance to serve set two all over again. A project that was suddenly destroyed when the world number three fell behind early with a break after a catastrophic service game. Cilic's lead, but it shouldn't last long, Thiem managed the rebreak in the fourth game of the third set - again with the help of the experienced Croat.
A little later, Thiem took the lead 3: 2 on his own serve and turned it up in the next game, at 0:30 from his point of view, the Austrian Cilic slammed three backhand winners in a row and finally grabbed himself with a sensational defensive performance also the break. The 27-year-old shouldn't let that go, after just over two hours the Austrian moved 6: 4, 6: 3 and 6: 3 in round two.
Thiem now against Sock
This was primarily a strong fighting performance by the Lower Austrian, who was particularly strong on the defensive today and had found the right tactic for Marin Cilic with the skillful backhand slice. At no point could he build on his best tennis and gave the Austrian many free points, which he knew how to use in the important phases.
Jack Sock is now waiting for the second round. The American with a strong serve shouldn't really be a stumbling block given the slow places in Paris. In the third round, however, a thoroughbred clay court specialist could wait with Casper Ruud, who made it to the semifinals in both Rome and Hamburg. Thiem mastered the first hurdle this Monday with Breavour.
You can read the game here in re-live!
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