Thiem impresses in hometown debut, cruises past Sachko to round 2

Dominic Thiem played his first game at the Erste Bank Open Vienna today and he impressed in his return to competitive tennis.

It's always a special time for Dominic Thiem when he is in Austria and there is probably not a lot of people who enjoy playing at home as much as he does. Today was a tough match for him as Sachko, a lucky loser ranked 529 put on a great fight. The popular 'Domi' won in just under two hours 6-4 7-5. The start of the match was great as Dominic broke his opponent early to take a 3-0 lead. He would add another one to make it 5-1 and everyone in the crowd was delighted as Thiem looked impressive.

Things changed, and rather quickly Thiem found himself leading 5-4 with Sachko having the 40-15 lead in the game where he served to make it 5-5. It was an impressive run from the lucky loser who broke Thiem twice to get back into the match. Understanding that he needed to pull together Thiem went on to win 4 points in a row to close the set in stellar fashion.

The 2nd set started off with Sachko breaking Thiem to take the lead and the atmosphere looked dire in the Arena. Dominic looked confused but he raised his level, even more, to break the inspired Ukranion make it 1-1. He then went on to win the next three games as well making it 4-1 to him. But once against Sachko didn't give up and he fought his way back to make it 4-4. Thiem came right back taking the 5-4 lead putting a lot of pressure on the lucky loser which he handled well and won the game.

Thiem won his next one as well taking a 6-5 lead before Sachko had to serve once more to stay in the game. This time Dominic was much more aggressive and he forced a match point. Sachko didn't crumble and saved the first one before Thiem forced another one and this time the Austrian prevailed.