Dominic Thiem’s run of success at the ATP 250 clay court tournament in Gstaad continues. The 28-year-old from Lower Austria celebrated his third win in a row against Peruvian Juan Pablo Varillas on Friday. Thiem won against the qualifier in the quarterfinals 6: 4 6: 3. On Saturday it’s about Thiem’s second final participation in this event, he won the tournament in 2015. His next opponents are either second-seeded Italian Matteo Berrettini or Spain’s Pedro Martinez, number five in the tournament.
Thiem is getting better and better at the Swiss altitude, which is also important with regard to the home tournament next week in Kitzbühel. In the first duel with the South American, the 2020 US Open winner took charge from the start. He was mostly able to rely on his serve, caused murmurs in the already well-filled ranks with forehand and backhand point shots and finally laid the basis for the set lead with a break to make it 2-1.
After Thiem Varillas had taken the serve a second time to make it 5: 2, the Lower Austrian temporarily went on the defensive. Nine points in a row went to the opponent, but at 5: 4 from Thiem’s point of view, he tore himself in time and served out. 49 minutes were played. For the 26-year-old Varillas, the cards were worse, for the first time in the top 100 in the world rankings and also for the first time on the ATP tour in a semi-final.
First semi-final since early May 2021
In the second round, the still world rankings-274 started. with a break against number 115 in the ATP ranking and again took the serve from the Peruvian in the fifth game to make it 4-1. Varillas still managed the rebreak to 3:5 in the meantime, but it wasn’t enough for more. After 1:46 hours, Thiem used his third match point. By reaching the semifinals, the first for the Austrian on the ATP tour since Madrid in early May 2021, Thiem returns to the top 200 on Monday.
“I played well yesterday,” Thiem referred to his round of 16 win against Argentinian Federico Delbonis in the “On Court” interview, “and I managed to follow that today. What I didn’t manage to do was to reserve.” He justified the breaks he got with nervousness, since after a long time he was about to make it into the semi-finals again. “The pressure is relatively high. I need the points to move up the rankings.”
“Really satisfied” with development
For his next duel, Thiem has already announced that he can go into the game freely. “When I (last week, note) went to Bastad, I didn’t think that I would play quarter-finals there and at least semi-finals there. I’m really satisfied with the development.” He also had praise for the audience: “Normally there are only a few spectators at games in the morning. It’s full center court early on, which is great.”
ATP 250 tournament in Gstaad
(Switzerland, 598,900 euros, sand)
