Thiem comfortably handles Ruud at Roland Garros, moves to 4th round

Dominic Thiem started off the play for the ATP on Friday at the Roland Garros and he had no issues dealing with Casper Ruud.

Dominic Thiem loves playing at the Roland Garros there is plenty of evidence for it but today he faced against a player who also loves playing here. Casper Ruud is a youngster who is slowly making a name for himself in the world of tennis especially as a strong contender on clay. Today he didn't live up to that title. He was a handful for Thiem early on playing strong tennis early and even breaking Dominic to take a 3-1 lead. All of that was before Dominic settled and once he did the match completely turned with Thiem first breaking Ruud to make it 3-3.

He would add one more a game later to give himself a lead which he converted to a 6-4 first set victory. He continued to play his game in the 2nd set as well breaking Ruud early to take a lead. He would maintain it throughout the set before adding one more break to win the set 6-3. The final set was more of the same. Dominic played his game while Ruud struggled to match him. Midway through the set came the break which gave him the 4-1 lead which then turned to a 6-1 final set victory.

The performance by Thiem was a spectacular one. He didn't serve too well hitting only 58 % of his first serves but he was equally good on both his first and second serve. He did allow 8 break points but he saved 7 of them and most of them were in the first set. Overall he played a very good match forcing Ruud to make many mistakes which the Norwegian had. He had 37 unforced errors compared to Thiem's 28. The Austrian also had 31 winners to go along with 5 aces.