The 26-year-old Lichtenwörther defeated the Italian Matteo Berrettini 6: 7 (4), 6: 4 and 10: 8 in the match tie-break in an hour and a half. The endgame, originally scheduled for 12 noon, had only started with a delay of more than seven hours due to constant rain.
Thiem had served well in the first sentence. Whenever his first serve came, the third in the world rankings also made the point – a total of 20 times. And he already led 4: 1 in the tie-break, but then acted too impatient and unfocused. And this short period of weakness was exploited by the world ranking eighth Berrettini freezing and left no more points to his opponent in the tie break.
In the second set, the 24-year-old Italian had the first break chances in this match at 1: 0, but Thiem kept his service and then used his 3: 3 break chance to 4: 3. The Australian Open finalist held this lead and made it 6: 4 to equalize the set, which had to determine the winner in the match tie-break. In this Thiem then quickly led 7: 3 and finally used his third match ball to win.
The two fended off breakballs at the beginning of the second set “were the turning point”, as Thiem emphasized in the first interview on the court. “But I was lucky,” admitted the Lower Austrian, who spoke of a “good and very interesting match on grass” in which he was simply “the happier” in the end. Thiem is now staying in Berlin, after a day off he will continue on Friday in a hangar of the former Tempelhof Airport on Hartplatz.
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