Dominic Thiem has competently started the ATP World Tour 250 tournament in Buenos Aires: The Austrian number one defeated Horacio Zeballos 6:4 and 6:3.
Second victory in second comparison with Horacio Zeballos for Dominic Thiem: The 24-year-old Lichtenwörther needed 90 minutes in the match with the Argentinean to make his successful debut on Sand 2018. Thiem had won the only match to date in three sets at the French Open last year.
The Lower Austrian’s record in the Argentinean capital thus remained perfect: two years ago, Thiem won the title in Buenos Aires, beating Rafael Nadal among others on his way to victory in the tournament. Against Zeballos, Thiem only had to defend himself against a break ball, but only scored three out of ten chances.
The next challenge for Thiem is: Guido Pella, the next local hero. Thiem had just lost his first two games against them – bor two years in Rio de Janeiro – but won the Australian Open at the beginning of the year for the first time. Pella didn’t stand a chance in 6-2 and 6-4 at Fernando Verdasco’s round of sixteen.
Andreas Haider-Maurer also had a sense of achievement: The returner, who had already been eliminated in Buenos Aires in the singles against Diego Schwartzman, beat Santiago Gonzalez from Mexico and Chile’s Julio Peralta with 3-6,6-3 and 10-5 with his Serbian partner Dusan Lajovic.
Here the single panel in Buenos Aires