Thiem wins with Fognini in double, tomorrow against Gasquet
Dominic Thiem and Fabio Fognini qualified as expected for the second round at the start of the double competition at the ATP Tour 500 tournament in Beijing. The two Laver Cup colleagues defeated Xin Gao and Runhao Hua from China 6: 4 and 7: 5.
by Jens Huiber
last edit:
Sep 30, 2019, 02:50 pm
If it's true that you can't have enough Fabio Fognini in your life, Dominic Thiem is living exactly this dream these days: First, Fabio and Dominic joined forces for the European Laver Cup team in Geneva The exhibition fight in Wuhan was a few days off, now Fognini and Thiem start together in a double in Beijing. The fact that they prevailed there against the Chinese wildcard pairing Xin Gao and Runhao Hua will not shake the tennis world any further.
Especially since Fognini has already collected a lot of merits in doubles, together with Simone Bolelli the triumph at the Australian Open 2015 is in the great history book of men's tennis. Last year, Fognini had been successful in doubles, alongside Matteo Berrettini in St. Petersburg.
Gasquet still undefeated against Thiem
By the way, the winner in the singles was Dominic Thiem. He is in position in Beijing, making him the favorite for 500 points for the ATP world rankings - and the Race to London. There the Austrian is in a solid fifth place, nothing should go wrong with the new appearance at the season finale in the London O2 Arena. In addition to coach Nicolas Massu and physio Alex Stober, coach father Wolfgang Thiem is also in Beijing.
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The draw in the Chinese capital was not exactly friendly with Dominic Thiem, the victory column against Richard Gasquet is still empty. A two is noted on the defeat side, the last two saw each other in 2017 in the Wiener Stadthalle. At that time Thiem played a solid, safe first movement, the second was balanced. The third then made Gasquet solid and safe, not to the delight of the home crowd. Final score at that time: 4: 6, 7: 5 and 6: 1 for Richard Gasquet, who celebrated a small renaissance this summer by entering the semi-finals of the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Cincinnati.
Bad prospects in double
Should Thiem take the first hurdle, it goes against a local favorite: Zhizhen Zhang, thanks to a wildcard slipped into the tableau, prolonged the difficult season for Kyle Edmund, prevailed in the tiebreak of the third set with 7-5. The way ahead foresees a quarter-final against Matteo Berrettini, followed by a meeting with either Karen Khachanov or Fabio Fognini. All gentlemen who need the points in Beijing very well and clearly more urgently than Dominic Thiem for the London qualification.
The prospects of going even further in the doubles are not exactly splendid for Thiem and Fognini: Round two could go against Michael Venus and Raven Klaasen. And they are fifth in the double race.