Thiem had made a major false start. He had to give up the first game, Paul didn’t give him a point. With two double mistakes, however, Thiem also made it easy for the American. Thiem remained in distress and also gave his second service game to zero. At 0:3 and two breaks behind, the preliminary decision was made in the first set.
It was 0: 4 after ten minutes, Thiem had only scored one of 17 possible points. Cheers erupted among the 7,500 fans when Thiem wrote for the first time to make it 4-1. The 29-year-old slowly recovered, it was no longer enough for a rebreak or even a comeback in the first set. After the first set ball, the first round was over after 26 minutes.
Comeback and set equalization
The first service game in the second set went to Thiem, a break was out of reach for the Lower Austrian. Paul served too consistently and safely with the set lead behind him. Thiem, on the other hand, continued to struggle with the serve and had to fend off two breakballs in the third game to make it 2-1 after a hard fight.
Paul had 14 winners with only two unforced errors at the time, 11:11 was the statistic for Thiem, who made great shots too often and, to his annoyance, followed them with unnecessary blunders. At least he held his own serve. At 3: 2, Thiem even had the first break chances, which Paul defused and made 3: 3 with an ace.
Paul suddenly showed weaknesses and had to hit another breakball to make the game 4:4. The tiebreak was approaching. Thiem increased to zero to 5: 4 and put Paul under pressure. But the American stayed just as cool as Thiem, who increased to 6: 5 and played big in the tie-break that followed. The set equalization was done.
Vain hopes
The match was on the razor’s edge with a now psychological advantage for Thiem, who had improved impressively while Paul was decreasing at the same time. Thiem did not use this advantage in his favor. Paul first fended off two breakballs to then take the service game from Thiem. At 0:2 the Austrian was under pressure.
The game went back and forth. Would Paul hold the lead? The American kept his nerve and pulled away 3-0. Thiem struggled, the encouraging applause from the fans helped him a bit. He then held his own service games and made the necessary rebreak at the last moment to make it 4:5. In the decisive tie-break, Thiem even fended off two match balls before he in turn used the first after 2:58.
ATP 500 tournament in Vienna
(Austria, 2,489,935 euros, hard court/indoor)
