Dominic Thiem reached the round of 16 at the Challenger tournament in Heilbronn. In the first showdown with the Japanese Kaichi Uchida, the Lower Austrian won 6:4 6:4 after 1:21 hours on Tuesday. He now meets the Spaniard Pedro Martinez.
Thiem managed an early break by stealing the Japanese’s second service game and making it 2-1. After a rebreak by Uchida to make it 3:3, the Austrian immediately took his serve again and served to win the set. In the second set, Thiem broke to 3: 2 and from then on didn’t let anything burn.
The 2020 US Open winner essentially relied on his service – winning 82 percent of points when the first serve was in the field – and hitting some impactful groundstrokes. With unforced mistakes he also made life more difficult than necessary.
Thiem had experienced a bitter disappointment at the French Open the previous week. After some good performances in advance against strong opponents, he was eliminated in the first round of Paris in five sets against Argentinian Pedro Cachin. He then announced that he would be doing more missions on sand before he started his grass season. In Heilbronn, where he is number four, the 29-year-old received a wild card.