Dominic Thiem is on second round of the Australian Open after a deserved 6-4,6-4,6-4 win over Guido Pella. The Austrian succeeded in creating a brilliant “Tweener”.
From Ulrike Weinrich from Melbourne
I’ve already looked at him two or three times on the Internet,”the Austrian confessed when he sat in press room 3 in the first round of Melbourne against Guido Pella about an hour after his convincing 6:4,6:4,6:4 win.
The blow through the legs after a praise of the Argentinean even became a much-acclaimed winner for Thiem. Such a man succeeds in 20 to 30 attempts “, said the world number five, but also revealed:” In this situation no other blow was possible.
But it somehow fitted the picture perfectly, that the magic point of all people was the magic point that introduced the early break in the third movement. The spectators at Show Court 2 not only paid tribute to this art performance of the strongly performing “Dominator” with frenetic jubilation:”The atmosphere was great, but you can’t really enjoy it on the court,”Thiem explained almost a little disappointed, because otherwise there is the danger that concentration would go away.
Left-hander Pella also played his part in the entertaining exchange of blows. The Doha semi-finalist responded to the Favourite’s energetic play with acrobatic defensive skills – but Pella still failed to turn the game around. After 2:15 hours Thiem served the final ace and made no secret of his relief after that. That was a good first appearance,”said the two-time Paris semi-finalist after the Pella spell was broken.
After two defeats in Rio de Janeiro and Chengdu, Thiem, defending himself from all six of his opponent’s break points, won his first victory against the South American. Austria’s number one question marks behind his health had already been dispelled early in the match. At the Qatar Open in Doha he had not been able to take part in his preliminary round match because of a feverish cold.
In round two, Thiem will meet Denis Kudla on Thursday. The qualifier from the USA prevailed against fellow countryman Steve Johnson at the start of the match:”He is a very good and solid player,”said the Lichtenwörther about Kudla (ATP no. 190).
Nevertheless, Thiem was not completely unhappy about the happy start to the Happy Slam. His girlfriend Kristina Mladenovic (France), the eleventh player in the world, took 15th place in her opening match on Tuesday. Broke in a row. As a result, two French media representatives were suddenly sitting at Thiem’s press conference. They wanted to know how he could help his partner “It is of course a difficult time for them. I’m just trying to build and support them. I know what it feels like,”said Thiem, who remains positive:”Kiki just needs a sense of achievement.”
On Thursday they both had trained together in Melbourne Park,”She played great,”he said. Most recently, Stuttgart finalist Mladenovic won a match on the WTA Tour in July 2017. Maybe the magic of Tweener King Thiem will help.