Dominic Thiem plays in St. Petersburg (from 15:30, in our LIVE-TICKER) for his tenth victory at an ATP tournament. The first-placed Austrian will face Martin Klizan of Slovakia in the final of the ATP World Tour 250 event. To date, Thiem has neither won against Klizan nor a tournament in the hall.
The atmosphere in the St.Petersburg hall is extremely respectful, the farewell of Mikhail Youzhny forever (as an active player) and for Daniil Medvedev from the current competition was accompanied by the local spectators with due national feeling. The mood when Dominic Thiem last met Martin Klizan? It was magical, on the other hand.
Wednesday evening at the Generali Open 2018 was chosen to give tournament and local favourite Thiem a smooth start to Austria’s biggest clay court tournament. Full house, very attractive climatic conditions, everything would have fit for a great party. If it hadn’t been for Martin Klizan, who used his chances more efficiently in the third set, who won the decision 7:5.
The Slovakian has at least one good memory of St. Petersburg: in 2012 he won his first ATP title ever here. Thiem’s experience is somewhat more modest – in his only appearance in 2015 he lost to Joao Sousa in the semi-finals. So surprising that the Portuguese is actually one of those opponents against whom the 25-year-old Lichtenwörter wins on any surface and at any time of the day.
Martin Klizan? Rather less. The two are at the highest level three times and Klizan has won all the matches. An amazing parallel to Thiem’s encounters with Roberto Bautista Agut before Saturday’s semi-final. There the Austrian has also reorganized the conditions, surely with 6:4 and 6:3 won.
Like 2018 is the year Dominic Thiem settles some scores – for example with Kevin Anderson, whom he defeated not only at the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Madrid, but also in the round of 16 of the US Open. Klizan, on the other hand, appears in the large tennis almanac under the keyword “savvy”.
No means are foreign to the Slovak, but neither are injuries. In St. Petersburg, Klizan defeated the youth with Denis Shapovalov and the multiple major winners with Stan Vavrinka. Dominic Thiem doesn’t fall into any of these drawers. And could celebrate his first ATP triumph in the hall on Sunday (in our LIVE-TICKER).
Here the single tableau in St. Petersburg