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Dominic Thiem had to admit defeat to Andrej Rublew 6: 7, 2: 6 in the quarter-finals at the Vienna Stadthallenturnier. It was also the end of the line for Novak Djokovic.
8:38 pm, October 30, 2020
A very strong one Andrej Rublew, but also has a painful blister on the right sole US Open-Winner Dominic Thiem I’m already on it Vienna-The quarterfinals brought the end. The Austrian tennis star won his title in Erste Bank Open fail to defend successfully. The 27-year-old world number three was defeated by the Russian on Friday after 1:35 hours with 6: 7 (5), 2: 6. The injury visibly weakened Thiem from the second sentence. Later it was also for Novak Djokovic already at the end of the quarterfinals. Had to go to italian Lorenzo Sonego clearly defeated with 2: 6.1: 6.
“I have had problems with such a large blister on the ball of the ball (right) since the first round. I always have problems, especially on the inside, especially the surface is very aggressive for the ball of the foot. This is generally a problem area “, said. Thiem almost 90 minutes after the loss. In this tournament he had problems from the first round and it was worse on Friday. “I felt it very strongly when I was playing and it got worse and worse with each slide, with each intense rally,” Thiem admitted.
Decision to start tomorrow in Paris
That’s why Friday night was the start of the last Masters 1000 tournament of the year in Paris-Bercy anything but safe. Until Saturday, Thiem wanted to decide whether to play in Paris or withdraw from the tournament.
Basically you have already worked a lot on this problem and improved some things as well. So the foot is glued in three layers before each game. “We try to keep this cornea down there, we work on the foot every day.” Especially on the right foot under the ball of the foot there is “extreme pressure”. He basically has this problem all year round, “but I just manage to keep it under control.” He also struggled in the semi-finals and finals when he won the title in Vienna last year. And then also in the ATP Finals. “It was really bad in London. This rough pavement is kind of poison for that.”
Paris-Bercy was actually a fixed date. “But if the foot is not pain-free on the first lap, it doesn’t make much sense there, so I’ll see how it develops overnight,” Thiem explained.
Rublew now meets Anderson
The match against Rublew, therefore, must be judged in hindsight, so to speak, in two phases. Because the duel between world numbers 3 and 8 was only high class in the first set. The four-time winner of this year’s tournament, Rublew, will face Vienna’s 2018 winner, the South African, in the semi-finals on Saturday. Kevin Anderson, who previously surprisingly won the fourth Russian seed Daniil Medvedev 6: 4.7: 6 (5) had eliminated.
Thiem was thus denied his second Vienna semi-final in the eleventh appearance at the town hall. However, thanks to Corona’s regulation for the ATP rankings, his 500 points from last year’s victory still remain in the rankings. If Thiem skipped Paris, then he would be fully focused on his fifth en-suite ATP final in London.
Balanced first move, clear second
Rublew was also able to qualify for this season’s top eight “Masters” and took a step in this direction on Friday. In the extremely balanced first set, only Thiem had two breakballs in the third game against Rublew, who played with enormous power, but defended them. As a result, however, none of those who returned had a chance to break into the tie-break. When Rublew found a 0:30 at 3: 2, Thiem serve, Lower Austria responded with three aces on the next four points. At 46 minutes, the tie break set had to be decided. In this he rose to 4: 4, before Rublew won two set balls after extremely intense rallies at 6: 4. The Russian used the second to 7: 5 after almost an hour. It was the preliminary decision.
Rublew seized on the urge to win the set well, while Thiem soon looked bad. At 1: 1, he initially fended off Rublews’ first two break balls in the match. Rublew used the third to make it 2-1. For the reasons mentioned, Thiem offered less and less resistance and also had to give up the service at 1: 4. In front of a thousand disappointed spectators, Thiem had to congratulate the opponent shortly after.
Rublew is in the round of the last four without losing a single set: “Today I was lucky that Dominic had problems with his foot. We had such great fights in the past. I hope he recovers quickly,” said Russian Thiem. known as one of his best friends on tour, athletic.
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