Dominic Thiem can only cling to a small straw against Kei Nishikori on Thursday. A victory would still be good for the mind. And the ATP points account.
By Jens Huiber from London
With Dominic Thiem, training is harder than with the other players he has faced in those days, says Peter Torebko, who plays in the second Bundesliga in Steyr in Upper Austria – and who will play the rounds as a hitting partner at the season finale in London. Thiem simply plays with more spin and pressure than John Isner. Except for its impact once.
For the Austrian number one, Wednesday was primarily about coping with the wounds from the clear defeat against Roger Federer. When Torebko found his tennis again, he was certainly not a bad contact for Dominic Thiem, the German plays the balls very competently over the net.
A mammoth task awaits Thiem on Thursday – should the 25-year-old really want to make it to the semi-finals. A clear victory against Kei Nishikori must come, the man against whom Thiem saw no light in Vienna. The performance of the Japanese against Kevin Anderson was at least strange, only one game the Japanese could win.
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A similar result would make Thiem look good in the first singles of the day (not before 15:00, live on Sky and in our live ticker). This does not mean that the qualification for the preliminary round is already fixed. Roger Federer would have to lose to Anderson in the evening session. I’d like to make it clear.
The maestro took Wednesday off, which Peter Torebko, in particular, regretted with regret. The man from Wesel would have liked to have played a few balls with Federer, but that doesn’t work, Torebko leaves on Thursday. Like either Dominic Thiem or Roger Federer.
A victory by Nishikori would in any case condemn the Swiss to victory, then the Japanese, Anderson and Federer would each have two triumphs. If the number of matches is the same, the winning sets decide, followed by the matches. Should Thiem and Federer win, the group victory would still go to the six-time ATP final champions: If two players have equal victories, the direct comparison decides.
Federer does not want to go on holiday with three defeats, the Basel bidder said before the start of the tournament. The same applies to Thiem, of course. In addition to the good feeling of having finished the season with a match win, the Austrian would also take 200 points into the ATP rankings for a win against Nishikori.
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