With a 6-4,6-2,7-5 win over Adrian Mannarino, Dominic Thiem made his second appearance in the Melbourne round of the last sixteen.
After his two-round win, there was an amusing scene in the press when Thiem was asked whether he wanted to make a tactical change – in view of the fact that he had recently lost to Mannarino – “What?”, according to Thiem’s reaction – whether the 6-0 record against the Frenchman was right. He said that he would not change anything, so he passed on to the Minutes.
Last year, Thiem had been successful against Mannarino at the US Open last year, and now in Melbourne it should be a sovereign victory. After a break on both sides in the first set, it was Thiem who took Mannarino’s serve again and served him through the first set 6:4 home safely. In the second set, the Lichtenwörther went straight into the lead with a break, finally extending his lead to a 5:2 and scoring an ace to clear the score 6:2.
Thiem also managed to break in the third set immediately, but had to concede the equaliser to 2-2. At the 5:5, Mannarino appeared to be out of concentration for a short while – with a double error, he gave off his serve for the preliminary decision at zero. Shortly after a good two hours, Thiem scored his first match point with a determined Smash.
For Thiem, this should not be the end of his journey in Melbourne: he will face a surprise man – Maximilian Marterer or Tennys Sandgren – in the last 16, his second at the Australian Open after 2017. If he wins, it could be against Novak Djokovic or Alexander Zverev.
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