Dominic Thiem has mastered the change from clay to lawn well. In the first round at the GERRY WEBER OPEN the No. 3 seeded Austrian defeated Qualifier Mikhail Youzhny 7:6(5), 6:2.
The Russian was already at the GERRY WEBER OPEN for the 13th time. He reached the finals in 2013, got to the Semis in 2012 and 2003. This year Mikhail Youzhny had to go through Qualifying. With two two-set victories against Belgian Ruben Bemelmans and the Italian Matteo Berrettini he was able to reach the Main Field. But there Dominic Thiem was a touch too big for him.
After Mikhail Youzhny had got his service through well, the French Open finalist lost his first service by double fault, but then four aces followed, all hit at a speed of 200 km per hour. And it went on well for Austrian, he got the first break to lead 2:1. Up to a score of 5:4 Dominic Thiem was the superior but after he couldn't use two match points, the Russian got a rebreak and all of a sudden he was back in the match. At 6:5 for Mikhail Youzhny the World's No. 7 even had two match points against him. He was saved by the tiebreak, which he won 7:5.
After a short break for treatment the match was played on. Dominic Thiem now playing with a bandage above his left knee. But this didn't seem to bother him a bit. The Austrian got a quick break in the second round, too and this time he was able to not only hold onto the break till the end of the set, he also let a second break follow. After 97 minutes Dominic Thiem had won the match 7:6(5), 6:2.
With this victory the Austrian has also won the second encountor with Mikhail Youzhny. They had already met in Stuttgart in 2016, on grass, too. Dominic Thiem just won in three sets back then.
