ATP: Dominic Thiem – Beware of the Lucky Loser!

Dominic Thiem has to deal with Jozef Kovalik in the round of 16 of the ATP World Tour 500 tournament in Barcelona (11:00 am, Pista Rafa Nada, in our live ticker and on SKY). The 25-year-old Slovakian is 146th in the world rankings.

One thing is certain: Dominic Thiem will not underestimate Jozef Kovalik, against whom the 24-year-old will play for a place in the quarter-finals in Barcelona on Thursday. For two reasons. Firstly, the two players met in Indian Wells a little over two years ago, and Thiem won two tiebreaks in Indian Wells in 2016.

And as an expert on the tennis scene, Thiem also knows that the “Lucky Loser” label does not necessarily mean good for his opponent – last year Andrey Rublev won titles in Umag and Leonardo Mayer in Hamburg, although they had lost in the last qualifying round. Kovalik undermined this in Barcelona against Rogerio Dutra Silva.

Kovalik has taken the place of the injured Fernando Verdasco, not necessarily bad news for the Lower Austrian. With the Spanish left-hander Thiem traditionally has his dear Müh´, most recently in Rio de Janeiro Verdasco won through. On the way to the round of sixteen, Kovalik immediately disposed of another left-handed player, Guido Pella had to admit defeat in two sets.

Thiem himself had medium problems in the first set with Jaume Munar, the 20-year-old local hero, won the tiebreak after defending a set point 10:8. Round two went much smoother, Thiem won with two breaks and without even having allowed a break chance, with 6:1.

Coach Günter Bresnik had said before the match that a set could well go into the tiebreak against strong serve Munar. He was proved right.

Thus the ATP World Tour 500 tournament in the lower half of the tableau will retain its most prominent names, Grigor Dimitrov had also held himself harmless against Gilles Simon alongside Thiem. Rafael Nadal draws his circles lonely at the top and has to do without two potential hits: Kei Nishikori, the opponent in the last 16 according to Tableau, withdrew against Guillermo Garcia Lopez after losing the first set.

And Novak Djokovic, who Nadal should have met in the quarter-finals, continues to puzzle. The last point against Martin Klizan, which the Slovakian won, is a mystery: Djokovic tried to shoot a point from a bad position – an option that the Serb in top form would never have taken. Of course, the ball landed in the net.

Here the single tableau in Barcelona