Dominic Thiem gets it to the start of the ATP-World-Tour-500-Tournament in Tokyo with a man, against whom he owns a white vest: Steve Johnson from the USA.
Most recently, the two In Paris have seen each other under special circumstances, particularly sad ones: Johnson’s father had died a few days before the French Open began, and Thiem expressed his sympathy for Johnson’s fate after the match on the net.
The tournaments afterwards were rather modest for the 27-year-old Californian, and Johnson is now only in 45th place in the world rankings – in 2016 he was only one place away from making it into the top 20.
If Thiem also wins the third match with Johnson (the premiere took place in Nice in 2014), there would be a meeting with either Alexandr Dolgopolov or Daniil Medvedev in round two.In the quarter-finals, following the seed to a reunion with Diego Schwartzmann – and in the very best case to a final against tournament favourite Marin Cilic, with whom Thiem has just finished the European team in Prague in the Laver Cup.
The world’s elite has split between Beijing and Tokyo, at least those players who think they are fit enough to play a tournament win.Rafael Nadal, Alexander Zverev and Grigor Dimitrov in the Chinese capital, Cilic and Thiem in Tokyo.Milos Raonic is also making his comeback there, the Canadian had to wait longer because of a slightly maladic wrist.
Dominic Thiem will soon try to forget the start of his 2017 Asian tour, and the two-set defeat against Guido Pella in Chengdu was also due to the circumstances – in other words, the jet lag.
nearby
Thiem’s only tournament win in 2017 was at a 500cc, in Rio de Janeiro in the spring.The Lichtenwörther would have to reach the quarter-finals in Tokyo in order to improve his world ranking points.Then the 45 points for the round of sixteen in Washington were dropped from the standings.
Here is the draw for the singles draw in Tokyo