Dominic Thiem won the Austrian duel with Sebastian Ofner on Wednesday after a mixed performance. The 28-year-old from Lower Austria defeated the Styrian 6:2 3:6 6:3 in the Round of 16 of the Generali Open in Kitzbühel and now meets the German Yannick Hanfmann (Thursday, not before 3 p.m.). After Bastad and Gstaad, Thiem is in his third quarterfinals in a row on the ATP tour.
In direct duels on the tour with Austrians, Thiem scored 7-3 wins and 2-0 against Ofner. In 2019, when he had played at this event for the last time, the ex-world number three had also defeated Ofner in the round of 16, but much more clearly. As a result, Thiem won his first ATP title in Austria.
“I am very happy that I was able to win here. But it was very different from yesterday and I struggled to adapt. It wasn’t easy to play against Sebastian, but I’m glad I won the match,” said the 28-year-old in an interview after the game. “It was so tight today. If Sebastian holds service here and pulls away, then he would certainly have won.”
The only 20-year-old Styrian Filip Misolic had already surprisingly qualified for the quarter-finals as the first local hero on his tour debut with 6:4 6:0 over Pablo Andujar (ESP). Lower Austria’s Jurij Rodionov, on the other hand, had clearly failed in two sets 1:6 4:6 to Roberto Bautista Agut (ESP/3).
ATP 250 tournament in Kitzbuehel
(Austria, 597,900 euros, sand)
