The 29-year-old US Open winner from 2020 has at least worked hard for the form he was hoping for in the past few weeks, after all he comes back with two semifinals in Gijon and Antwerp and victory over world number eleven Hubert Hurkacz (POL). In the current world rankings, Thiem improved to 113th place.
That didn’t change anything about his outsider role. “I’m definitely not a favourite. You still have to say that Gijon and Antwerp were 250 tournaments, also with absolute top players, but Vienna is another house number,” said Thiem. The success against Hurkacz gave him a “huge boost”.
Thiem to start against Paul
At the ATP 500 tournament in Vienna, Thiem will face the American Tommy Paul in the first round. According to the program, the top seeded Russian Daniil Medvedev would already be waiting in the second round for the Vienna winner of 2019, who recently played much better. The current world rankings-31. Paul was able to defeat Thiem in four sets in the only duel in 2019 in Paris.
Thiem’s biggest problem at the moment is consistency. “I’m still missing a few percent so that I have fewer ups and downs in the match,” said Thiem. “It can only improve if you play week after week. In the same way, I can get this consistency back, in a single match, but also over a whole tournament week.”
Novak and Rodionov demanded
Wildcard player Dennis Novak, who met Greek world number five Stefanos Tsitsipas on Wednesday, got a tough start. Like two years ago, Jurij Rodionov challenges the Canadian Denis Shapovalov on Tuesday, whom he had defeated at the time.
So Rodionov can prove himself again against Shapovalov. “A coincidence and an exciting draw, let’s see how it will end this time. I can play freely because I know I’ve already beaten him. That was my first ATP victory back then. I’m already excited for the game,” emphasized Rodionov.
Misolic fails in round one
For the first of the four Austrians, the end came on Monday evening. Filip Misolic was beaten 3:6 3:6 by Argentina’s Francisco Cerundolo after 68 minutes. This year’s Kitzbühel finalist received a wildcard like Novak and Rodionov.
In the first set, the 21-year-old from Styria was unable to use a breakball to make it 4:2 and then conceded the first break of the match to make it 3:4. After another loss of service to 3: 6, the first round was history. In the second set, the South American Cerundolo, who is 29th in the ranking, exactly 121 places ahead of Misolic, managed the decisive break to make it 4:2.
