Thiem and Dimitrov through to Erste Bank Open quarterfinals

Dominic Thiem and Grigor Dimitrov are through to the Erste Bank Open quarterfinals in Vienna following victories against Garin and Tsitsipas.

Dominic Thiem stepped onto the courts today in Vienna and he was impressive in his demolition of Christian Garin. The match lasted only 66 minutes and it saw Thiem dominate Garin 6-3 6-2. While Garin is widely touted as a clay-court specialist his hard-court game is respectable. Today none of that matter as Theim came out determined and he controlled the match from the start. He served impressively hitting 5 aces in the first set. The conversion rate on his serves was clinical as well especially on his 2nd serve where he lost only one point. All of that contributed to Garin not even coming close to a break. He surrendered only one himself but it was enough for Thiem to win the opening set 6-3.

Garin started the 2nd set well winning two service games without no issues. But when the issues started later on in the set they completely changed the set. Thiem was hitting shot after shot and the Vienna crowd cheers became louder and louder. Dominic won four games in a row to win the match 6-2.

The 2nd match of the evening session was the match of the day between Tsitsipas and Dimitrov. The level of tennis was high and neither player could pull ahead in the opening set. Games quickly piled up and we found ourselves in the tiebreak. In it, Dimitrov opened with 5 straight points to take a 5-0 lead but the Greek's response was impressive. A few stellar winners, a couple of aces and a few Dimitrov mistakes meant that Stefanos won the opening set 7-6(5).

The 2nd set followed a similar pattern as both of them served well and played well. The only bad service game Tsitsipas had was the one that Dimitrov won and that would be enough for him to win the 2nd set 6-4. In that game, Tsitsipas struggled to hit his first serve and Dimitrov exploited his slower 2nd serve to achieve the key advantage. Early in the 3rd set Dimitrov got a chance to break Tsitsipas and he did it to take the 3-2 lead. Dimitrov went on to finish the match with a strong 6-3 final set victory.