Dominic Thiem starts in Shanghai against a man against whom he has not yet won a match: Viktor Troicki from Serbia, who defeated Canadian Denis Shapovalov in three sets.
Dominic Thiem had a few days to acclimatize in Shanghai, as did Roger Federer.The Swiss player has found distraction in basketball and the Golden State Warriors, nothing is known about Thiem in this respect.
The penultimate ATP Masters 1000 Tournament of the year has picked up speed and will be played on one of the faster surfaces on the Tour.This doesn’t necessarily have to speak against the Austrian number one, Thiem John Isner defeated John Isner at the Laver Cup in the hall in Prague, so the ability to return properly is there.What was missing in the last two weeks: a sense of achievement.The defeat against Guido Pella in Chengdu may still have been due to the jet-lag, but Steve Johnson in Tokyo has lost his backhand after a solid start.
In Shanghai, Viktor Troicki is waiting for the kick-off, who can go into the match with the good feeling of having never lost to Dominic Thiem.The first match of 2014 in Gstaad will only be remembered when this tournament marked Troicki’s return after his suspension because of a refusal to take a doping test.The meeting in the Vienna Stadthalle last year was more difficult, Troicki won this one in two sets, in the last sixteen?
The Serbian defeated Denis Shapovalov at the start, the 6:0 in the third set is a challenge to the next generation.At the US Open and at the beginning of the year in Melbourne, Troicki made two third rounds at Majors, in Sydney and Istanbul he reached the semi-finals.
Thiem, on the other hand, can look back on significantly better results and an excellent chance of a place at the ATP final in London.The last match win in a regular competition was the US Open, Adrian Mannarino had to cancel his sails at the provisional Louis Armstrong Court.In Shanghai, the 24-year-old has no points to defend from last year’s points, and in contrast to the last two tournaments in Asia, the pressure of expectation is also much lower: Thiem is in the tournament as number five, but Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are attracting more attention.In Chengdu and Tokyo, they were first and second on the seed list.
Dominic Thiem’s mood seems to have picked up again, at least a recent photo from Shanghai suggests this.But in the company of his Laver-Cup teammates, minus Tomas Berdych, it is easy to endure.
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