The spell is broken: Dominic Thiem finally celebrated his first match win in 2023. The former world number three prevailed on Tuesday in the opening round of the $711,600 clay court tournament in Buenos Aires against number seven seeded Slovakian Alex Molcan after 1:45 hours 7:6 (7/4) 6:3. The next hurdle for the 29-year-old on Thursday is Juan Pablo Varillas from Peru.
“It was a good match,” said Thiem after the first success in the fifth match this year. He had previously been eliminated in Adelaide in the first qualifying round and also at the Australian Open in the first main round. At the beginning of February, it then had two defeats in the Davis Cup against Croatia, all of them without the ÖTV player winning a set. He was able to stop this trend now.
After breaks on both sides, the tie-break had to make the decision in the first set, in which Thiem, who was equipped with a wildcard, was quickly 5-1 ahead and then had the upper hand 7-4. After that, the Lower Austrian didn’t allow any more breakballs and celebrated a sovereign victory.
“I stayed focused”
“I won against a strong opponent, stayed focused throughout the match, even in difficult moments. That’s why I’m happy,” said Thiem. Buenos Aires is good ground for him, having won two of his 17 titles on the tour there in 2016 and 2018. He suffered his only defeat there in 2019 in the semifinals against Diego Schwartzman. “I really like playing here and I’ve felt really good in the training sessions over the past few days.”
The number 99 in the world now has to deal with Varillas, which is just behind in position 101 in the ranking. The only duel so far in 2022 in the Gstaad quarter-finals was also on clay with 6: 4 6: 3 to Thiem. The 27-year-old Varillas won after qualifying against the Portuguese Joao Sousa 6:2 7:5.
Should Thiem also master the round of the last eight at the ATP 250 event and thus win his 13th of 14 matches so far in Buenos Aires, a duel with the number three seeded Italian Lorenzo Musetti could await.
