ATP: Dominic Thiem and Philipp Petzschner eliminated in Indian Wells

Dominic Thiem and Phlipp Petzschner are eliminated in the first round of the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Indian Wells. The two lost to the favourite duo Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares after 66 minutes in two sets with 3:6 and 4:6.

Thiem had some problems with his first service game, but the German-Austrian pairing had a first break when Soares hit the ball 2-1: Thiem hit Murray with a forehand which he couldn’t fill the field anymore. Murray/Soares managed to equalize to the 3:3 on Thiem’s serve, also because Petzschner made two simple mistakes on the net. A few moments later, Petzschner also lost his service game and Murray served out 6:3 after a little more than half an hour.

In the second round, the serve went up to 2:2, then Thiem lost his service play to zero. The fourth seeded Murray and Soares didn’t allow Thiem and Petzschner to make a comeback, but after just over an hour they made the move into the second round clear.

Dominic Thiem’s physical condition seems to be excellent anyway: the Austrian number one appeared in black alongside Petzschner, not an outfit that would be recommended in strong sunlight. A few clouds had spread above stage 5 at the Indian Wells facility. Stefanos Tsitsipas, the first stage in the singles, is a man waiting for Thiem, who was beaten in two sets by the Lichtenwörther at the beginning of the year in Doha.

Philipp Petzschner celebrated his greatest successes with Austrian partners: with Jürgen Melzer he won in Wimbledon as well as at the US Open; also with Alexander Peya he succeeded in the Bayreuth ATP tour. In 2018, Petzschner tried his hand at the ATP level with two different partners, but he had not been successful with Jonathan Erlich and Jan-Lennard Struff.

Here is the men’s double panel in Indian Wells