Dominic Thiem narrowly lost his opening match against Viktor Troicki at the ATP Masters tournament in Shanghai.The Serbian won after one hour and 51 minutes in the third set tiebreak with 6:3 3:6 7:6 (5).Thiem thus won the third match on his Asian tour and was defeated for the third time.
Thiem started weakly as so often: only two of the first 14 points were due to the Lichtenwörther.Thiem made too many mistakes, Troicki didn’t have to do much to reduce his serve to 2-0.
At the score of 0:3 Thiem was confronted with another 0:40, but was able to ward off all break chances.Troicki was fully committed to the quick game of Thiem and tried to get him into trouble with a quick forehand.Even though Austria’s number one came in a little better, Troicki saved the early break and won the first set 6-3.
The second run was much more gratifying for Thiem.At a score of 2:2 he fought off a break ball before he was able to take the Serbian’s serve for the first time in the game.The 24-year-old made fewer mistakes overall, but his opponent always managed to make several mistakes.The Lower Austrian also managed to serve better and better: Seven aces in the second set alone meant more relaxed service games.The second set also ended 6:3, but this time it went to the Lower Austrian.
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In the final set Thiem was confronted with two break possibilities for Troicki in the first service game, but both were able to fend off with crushing forehand winners.Both Thiem and Troicki then played concentrated service games in which the respective backstroke was without chance.
A tiebreak had to come, with the better end for Troicki.A wild forehand and another unforced mistake on the backhand of Thiem brought the Serbian 5-2 to the lead, who was able to make everything clear on his own serve.With a risky winner and a double error, Thiem was able to equal the score to 5:5, but Troicki responded with an unbelievable return winner, and then used his first match point.
Thiem then hacked to frustrate his racket, a symptomatic end to a messed up autumn.Since also Kevin Anderson and David Goffin in the 2.Thiem’s participation in the ATP finals in London seems to be pretty much fixed.