Dominic Thiem is the clear favourite in his second round match of the Australian Open 2018: The Lichtenwörther opens Thursday against Dennis Kudla from the USA in the Margaret Court Arena.
Günter Bresnik was quite satisfied with the early Tuesday evening Australian time. And why wouldn’t I be? His protégé Dominic Thiem delivered a very pleasing performance – and this against an opponent who had caused him major problems until then: Guido Pella. Particularly positive: Thiem showed the components that were worked on in the training camp on Tenerife in a consistent manner, rarely has the Austrian number one seen so often his balls pursued. And the volley, that small problem area where Bresnik and Thiem worked well before the season, worked at least excellently.
Good prospects for the forthcoming match, which is likely to take place under significantly different conditions: If Günter Bresnik still wore the sun hat on Court 2 in the Pella match for fashion reasons, it can be assumed that the opening match in the Margaret Court Arena will be held on Thursday with summery flair.
Dennis Kudla in round two is a very decent draw, even though the American showed a solid form with three qualifying victories and a win over Steve Johnson at the start of the main field action. Kudla is only in 180th place in the world rankings, and the 25-year-old’s season began in Brisbane, where he lost his first qualifying match against Jozef Kovalik from Slovakia. In 2017, Kudla celebrated exactly one success in an ATP main field, in Newport on grass against his fellow countryman Mitchell Krueger.
Thiem has played against his Kiev-born opponent once, just over two years ago in Brisbane. The smooth 6:3 and 6:2 reflect the theoretical conditions for the duel on Thursday.
Strictly speaking, Dominic Thiem is still undefeated in 2018, but the Lichtenwörther could not compete against Gael Monfils in the semi-final in Doha due to illness. Against American players, Thiem had a positive record last year (one win and one defeat against Steve Johnson and Sam Querrey, two wins against Jared Donaldson, one against Taylor Fritz), the influence of this statistic on the match outcome will be difficult to measure.
With his Tweener against Pella, Dominic Thiem enchanted the fans in Melbourne for a short time, but it was above all the impact on the important points that the Lower Austrian was able to rely on. Against Kudla, the combination of solid service and dominant play should suffice, the task afterwards would definitely be filled with a left-handed player: In round three, Thiem would meet either Jri Vesely or Adrian Mannarino.