2023-10-31 04:30:52
The Lower Austrian prevailed against the Swiss Stan Wawrinka in Paris with a three-set win after over two and a half hours of play. Defending champion Holger Rune is waiting in round two.
After a tough fight, Dominic Thiem is in the second round of the Masters 1000 tennis tournament in Paris. The Lower Austrian prevailed in the duel between two former Grand Slam champions against the Swiss Stan Wawrinka after falling behind with a set score of 3:6.6:3.7:5. The game didn’t end until 2:22 a.m. on Tuesday night. Defending champion Holger Rune is now waiting for Thiem.
“It was a special match. “I think I went onto the court so late and have never finished a match so late,” said Thiem in the winner’s interview. In the head-to-head with the 38-year-old Wawrinka, the Lower Austrian reduced the score to 2:3.
Thiem, who slipped out of the top 100 in the world rankings on Monday, started off error-prone and repeatedly found himself in trouble when it came to his own service. Wawrinka finally used the fifth breakball to make it 5:3. The confident Swiss bagged the first set with an ace.
A crime thriller at the end
Round two started exactly to Thiem’s liking. The Lower Austrian took advantage of Wawrinka’s first phase of weakness in his own service game and was quickly 3-0 ahead. Although the Swiss fought back to 3:3, Thiem now found his game better. This time the ÖTV ace managed the break to make it 5:3, and he then served with difficulty to equalize the set.
The decision sentence developed into a crime thriller. Wawrinka took Thiem’s serve to make it 5:3, and the Lower Austrian stayed in the match thanks to the immediate rebreak. Also because Wawrinka served a double fault on match point. Thiem then stayed on the trigger, got the break to 6:5 and converted his first match point after 2:31 hours.
With the Dane Rune, the current seventh in the world rankings awaits Thiem in round two. Thiem lost his only duel so far with Boris Becker’s protégé in two sets at this year’s Masters in Monte Carlo. (APA)
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