ATP Finals: Dominic Thiem loses opener despite improvement

Dominic Thiem lost his opening single against Grigor Dimitrov at the ATP finals in three sets in London. He will continue on Wednesday.

By Florian Goosmann from London

Not a good start for Austria’s top players in London. Thiem lost his debut guest Dimitrov after an initially weak, then better performance with 3:6,7:5,5:7.

With his red shirt and sweatband, Dominic Thiem brought a slightly more aggressive colour to the blue o2-arena for the first time as a muted black, white and wine red – but he and his opponent Dimitrov seemed nervous, tense and with a few mistakes at the beginning. At the 3:2 the preliminary decision in first set when Dimitrov courageously returned to the game and Thiem helped Thiem with a weak serve at the break. Thiem had only played 33 percent of his first serve in the first set – too little.

In the second round, Thiem served a little better, scoring only three points for his own service up to 5:5 and scored 0:30 in Dimitrov’s serve at 2:1 and 3:2, but he survived the critical situations with courageous baseline tennis and strong serve. All in all, Thiem seemed to be closer to equalizing the set than Dimitrov to victory, even though Dimitrov had always been able to step up a gear as soon as Thiem sensed the morning air. But not at 6:5 for Thiem: The Lichtenwörther decidedly took over the command and scored three break points at a time, his first ever in the whole match. Dimitrov moved directly – block compensation.

Thiem overcame a 15:40 in the third set at 2:2, but Dimitrov seemed to be more determined, he tried more and more to stand on the field and take Thiem’s time. At 3:3 and 15:40 he finally grabbed creatively, put a slice briefly in the field, moved up and finished with an emotional volley stop.

Thiem followed up and scored 5:5, but then lost his serve to zero and with two double faults in a row. Dimitrov then served the match back home with difficulty.

On Wednesday, Thiem – with the support of Kristina Mladenovic in the spectator area, by the way – will face the loser of the game between Rafael Nadal and David Goffin; Grigor Dimitrov will be able to compete with the winner.

More information will follow!