Fernando Verdasco is in the semi-final of Rio de Janeiro. The Spaniard defeated defending champion Dominic Thiem in two sets and will now face either Fabio Fognini or Aljaz Bedene.
Dominic Thiem’s mission of defending his title at the ATP World Tour 500 tournament in Rio de Janeiro was stopped by an incredibly strong Fernando Verdasco in the quarter-finals: The Spanish veteran, currently ranked 40th in the world, won after 1:25 hours 6:4 and 6:0.
From the beginning, Verdasco left no doubt about his tactics: standing wide in the court, taking the ball early – and playing comparatively flat. Thiem had two break chances in the second serve game and six in the third. At 4:3, the Austrian took the first chance at service Verdasco, the Spaniard resisted with a serve-volley variant. One game later, however, it was that far: Thiem put a forehand in the end, Verdasco had secured the first break of the match. And yet he still had to save three chances of his opponent for a re-break. After a little more than an hour, Thiem struck a backhand into the net, 6:4 for Verdasco. The first set loss of the Austrian number one since the Australian Open.
The enormous humidity on Friday evening in Rio ensured that the balls did not bounce off as high as usual. Certainly a disadvantage for Dominic Thiem, who operates with a lot of spin. Sentence two began with the next setback for the Lichtenwörther: Verdasco got the serve of Thiems to zero. And maintained the high level of the initial stage, aimed at the lines and hit them mostly. The result was the next impact loss without point for Thiem. The point to the 40:30 point in the fourth game was then won by Verdasco in a straightforward manner: Thiem played a strong backhand cross, the 34-year-old left-hander risked a longline shot, in which the string of Verdasco’s racket tore, but the ball still landed narrowly on the line.
At the latest then Dominic Thiem’s resistance was broken. After 85 minutes, Verdasco scored his first match point – which Thiem made clear to the Spaniard with a forehand mistake. Verdasco also won their third match against Thiem. Fernando Verdasco is now waiting for the winner of the last quarter-finals between Fabio Fognini and Aljaz Bedene.