ATP: Dominic Thiem opens in Barcelona against a youngster

Dominic Thiem starts into the ATP World Tour 500 tournament in Barcelona against the Spaniard Jaume Munar on Wednesday (second match after 11:00 am on Pista 1, in our live ticker and on SKY)). The Austrian named for the singles and doubles.

In Monte Carlo Dominic Thiem decided to finish the singles: Too uncertain is the condition of his right ankle, because of which the world ranking seventh had to pause after his accident in Indian Wells. As the matches against Andrey Rublev, Novak Djokovic and, yes, Rafael Nadal showed: Physically, Austria’s number one is fully there. Playfully, Thiem wasn’t the only one who didn’t stand a chance against Nadal.

Now Barcelona. Here Thiem has to defend a final, a year ago he was defeated by Nadal on the court named after the great Aschenplatz champion himself. Thiem also called for the doubles this time, at Hyeon Chung’s side. The Lichtenwörther would have liked to have met the South Korean at the Australian Open in the quarter-finals, alone, Tennys Sandgren had something against it with the best match of his life.

In the single tableau Dominic Thiem was noted at position three and drawn on the lower branch. That’s nice because he’s only threatened with a reunion with Nadal in the final. The way there has started with a walk-through, in round two it is not against Joao Sousa, a designated favourite opponent of Thiem. Sousa lost his opening match against 20-year-old Spaniard Jaume Munar in three sets.

Thiem has never played against Munar, who is ranked 174th in the world ranking and came into the main field of Barcelona with a wildcard. The man, who lives in Barcelona, played his way through qualifying for the Australian Open in 2018, losing to Gael Monfils in the first round. Most of the time Munar signs up on the ATP-Challenger Tour, in the Race to Milan, the annual ranking of the under-21-year-olds, he is still in 17th place.

Dominic Thiem, of course, enters the game as the clear favourite, the power of his experience and the knowledge of his strength. Even though coach Günter Bresnik points out in an interview with tennisnet that Munar has an excellent serve and a good forehand. That there are weaknesses on the backhand side and also in the athletic area could be observed in the match against Sousa: The Spaniard was plagued with cramps in the final set.

By the way, Thiem will meet the man against whom the accident happened in Indian Wells: Pablo Cuevas from Uruguay. He will be competing with Marcel Granollers and can double competently: Cuevas won the title in Kitzbühel in 2017. Where Dominic Thiem will return this summer.

Here the single tableau in Barcelona

Here the double tableau in Barcelona