Sebastian Ofner is taking part in the main competition in the Principality of Monaco, and Sam Weissborn is taking part in the double competition.
In 2018, in his best performance at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters, after victories over Andrey Rublev (Russia) and Novak Djokovic (Serbia), he only lost in the quarterfinals to series champion Rafael Nadal (Spain). Dominic Thiem has remained a long way from a similar success at the ATP Masters 1000 clay court tournament in the Principality of Monaco this season. The Lower Austrian (ATP 91) had to admit defeat to the experienced Spanish former world number nine Roberto Bautista Agut (ATP 93) in the first qualifying round this Saturday afternoon with 1:6, 2:6 in just 71 minutes of play. He recently showed an upward trend at the ATP 250 event in Estoril and was narrowly eliminated in the round of 16 on Thursday. He will continue the week after next with another ATP 250 clay court event in Munich, for which, as is well known, he received a wildcard for the main competition.
Thiem would actually have met twelfth seeded Frenchman Arthur Cazaux (ATP 74) in Monte Carlo, but the 21-year-old canceled at short notice. Instead, it came to the seventh duel with 35-year-old Bautista Agut, in which Thiem went into it with a 2:4 record. In the seventh comparison between the two, there wasn’t much going for the 2020 US Open winner, especially in the first set – he acted too incorrectly and his opponent was too solid. While Bautista Agut took advantage of his only two break chances in the second and sixth games, Thiem missed 0:30 as a setback in the first and fifth games. In the second round, the Lichtenwörthern fought back again after quickly falling behind on the break and clearly improved. But after another service loss to make it 2:3, he missed both the rebreak opportunity and a 40:15 on his own serve at 2:4 and had to congratulate Bautista Agut on his victory shortly afterwards.
Ofner and Weissborn strike first
However, Austria is still represented at the first highlight of the European clay court season. Sebastian Ofner qualified directly for the main competition. After his extremely unfortunate opening defeat at the ATP 250 tournament in Marrakesh on Thursday evening, the Styrian (ATP 47) will now meet Brit Daniel Evans (ATP 42) for the first time in his debut appearance at the Monte Carlo Country Club. In the doubles competition, last year’s national finalists Sam Weissborn and Romain Arneodo were again awarded a wild card. The Viennese (ATP double 51) and the Monegasque local hero (ATP double 58) are challenging the French Ugo Humbert (ATP double 1276), number 14 in the individual world rankings, and the 37-year-old, who are starting with a protected ranking Veteran Fabrice Martin (ATP double 72).