Sensation in Paris: Dominic Thiem immediately eliminated | Tennis

The 27-year-old Austrian, two-time finalist in Paris, lost after a 2-0 lead in sets in a five-setter to Spaniard Pablo Andujar, who recently also won on clay against Roger Federer. It became 4-6 5-7 6-3 6-4 6-4 for the overjoyed veteran (35).

Thiem was seeded fourth in Paris, where he was in the final in 2018 and 2019. Both times he lost quite a chance to Rafael Nadal, whom he has already played a number of times on clay.

Giant Slayer Pablo Andujar

Ⓒ ANP / HH

Thiem won his first Grand Slam title at the US Open last year. After winning that title, Thiem had to deal with motivation problems. In 2021 he also did not reach the level that we are used to from him. Thiem also made little impression during the clay-court season.

Alexander Zverev narrowly prevented elimination. The German faced a 2-0 deficit in sets against Oscar Otte, but allowed his fellow countryman only four games in the remainder: 3-6 3-6 6-2 6-2 6-0.

Otte, the number 152 in the world, played freely against the global number 6. With aggressive and alternating tennis, the qualifier, who regularly visited the net, won the first two sets. He also led 1-0 in the third set, but then lost five games in a row.

Zverev, who has never lost a five-setter at Roland Garros and has already won six, did not look back in the remainder and did not give up a service game anymore.

“He gave me little rhythm in the early stages and that’s the way he had to play,” said Zverev. “After the second set I started playing a little harder and deeper and so I managed to turn it around. He was also more tired and maybe not used to this kind of match.”