Already for the third time in 2018 Dominic Thiem will have to deal with Stefanos Tsitsipas on the ATP tour: This time it’s about entering the semi-finals of the 500cc tournament in Barcelona (12:30 pm, Pista Rafael Nadal, in our live ticker and on SKY).
Dominic Thiem met Stefanos Tsitsipas every day for a while last summer. Or rather: Thiem stood a little in the way of the Greek. Even if only as a cardboard figure. Tsitsipas (unsuccessfully) tried to qualify in Kitzbühel. On his way from the centre court to the players’ area, the now 19-year-old marched past a sales stand that advertised life-size with Austria’s number one.
Thiem himself, however, was already in Washington at that time, had renounced the tournament in the self-proclaimed sports capital of the Alps. The Lichtenwörther has revised this in 2018, after Wimbledon it goes back also sand. First to Hamburg for the German Open, then to Kitzbühel.
At real speed, however, Stefanos Tsitsipas got to know his opponent in Barcelona on Friday: at the beginning of the year in Doha, a few weeks later in Indian Wells, both times on hard court. And both times with the Austrian as the winner. Thiem could not finish either tournament: In Doha, Thiem caught the flu and could not play Gael Monfils in the semi-finals. In Indian Wells, the accident happened against Pablo Cuevas.
Last year’s finalist Thiem kept last year’s performances in Barcelona more exciting than necessary: both against Jaume Munar and Jozef Kovalik needed a tiebreak in the first set, after all, the second round went easier in both matches. Tsitsipas had to play as a seeded player once more, beating Corentin Moutet, Diego Schwartzman and on Thursday also Albert Ramos-Vinolas.
Against Kovalik, Thiem served to win the set after an intermediate sprint at 5:3, but still took the detour via the tiebreak. With the continuation of the match, the Lower Austrian dominated his opponent more and more, the advance into the quarter-finals also showed that the physical fitness of the current number seven in the world is right.
I guess Tsitsipa’s too. This year, however, the young Greek has already shown that a volcano is bubbling in him: At the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Miami, he exchanged so much kindness during the match with Daniil Medvedev that the Russian demanded a debate on the court immediately after the match. However, Stefanos Tsitsipas, who had lost the match, was not available. He was already swamped.
Here the single tableau in Barcelona