Dominic Thiem missed his first quarterfinals on the ATP tour in four months. The tennis pro from Lower Austria lost 4:6,4:6 to qualifier Juan Pablo Varillas from Peru in the round of 16 of the $711,600 clay court tournament in Buenos Aires on Thursday. For the 29-year-old, it was only the second defeat in 14 games at the Argentina Open, which the Lichtenwörther won in 2016 and 2018.
Thiem last reached the round of the last eight in Antwerp last October. That will remain the case, at least for the time being, because the former third in the world rankings did not get into the game well in the drizzle and very windy conditions. He conceded two early breaks and quickly found himself 5-1 behind.
After that, the Lower Austrian fought his way into the game once morest the South American, who is currently two places behind Thiem in position 101 in the ranking, and reduced it to 4: 5. Varillas then secured the first round on his own service with the third set ball.
In the second set, Thiem, who had come into the main draw with a wildcard, gave up his second service game and mightn’t break once more. After 1:47 hours, his 27-year-old opponent used his first match point. In the head-to-head, the Peruvian equalized to 1: 1. Thiem will continue in Brazil next week, where he will hit sand at the ATP 500 tournament in Rio de Janeiro.
