There was joy and sorrow for Austria’s tennis players on Monday. Austria’s number one, Sebastian Ofner (ATP 43rd), won the tournament opener in Barcelona against Russian Pawel Kotow 5:7 6:3 6:2. Thiem (ATP 105th) had to admit defeat to Spanish qualifier Alejandro Moro Canas, number 240 in the world rankings, 4:6 4:6 in Munich.
15.04.2024 20.28
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Ofner ultimately solved the first round task in Barcelona confidently after falling behind in a set and can compete with Stefanos Tsitsipas in the second round of the clay court tournament worth almost three million euros. The Greek traveled to Barcelona as the Monte Carlo winner, where he had a bye at the start.
“I played against him once, last year in Paris. I think he’s in very good shape again now and has won the Masters. I can only win, no matter what I do,” said Ofner about his next task. At the French Open 2023 he lost to Tsitsipas in three sets in the round of 16. “Why shouldn’t I even win a match like that? But to do that I have to perform very well.”
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Against Kotow, Ofner chased an early loss of serve for a long time and managed to make it 5:5 before he had to give up the first set. Ofner then acted according to the paper form and took the reins against the Russian, who was ranked 26 places behind him. After equalizing the set, the Styrian got the break to make it 3-1, then had to fight briefly, but was finally on track with 4-1.
No sense of success for Thiem
There was no happy ending for Thiem in Munich. After rain initially delayed the games in the Bavarian capital, Thiem got up to speed quicker at the start of the game on Center Court. The 30-year-old was leading 2-0 before the thread broke for the first time.
Moro Canas got the break back and posted four games in a row. Thiem managed another rebreak to 3:4, but he ultimately had to give up his serve game again to lose the set.
The 31-year-old seemed to have caught himself in the second set. Thiem was on course to equalize the set at 4-2 before Moro Canas again benefited from simple mistakes by the Lower Austrian. Thiem conceded the decisive break to 4:5 and was quickly 0:40 behind on his own serve. On the 23-year-old Spaniard’s second match point, Thiem’s shot landed out.
2024-04-15 18:45:00
#Tennis #joy #sorrow #Ofner #Thiem
