Thiem, Shapovalov through to Qatar Open R3

Dominic Thiem and Denis Shapovalov are through to the Qatar Open R3 following victories on Wednesday.

Dominic Thiem stepped out for his 2nd round match versus Aslan Karatsev at the Qatar Open and played an exciting match, winning in three sets. It was a hard-fought victory for Thiem who was not as sharp as he usually is due to not playing any tennis for over a month. Despite that, he was able to come back from losing the opening set to win 6-7(5) 6-3 6-1.

The opening set was largely dominated by play when serving by both players. No player really had any chances to break the opponent and we ended up in a tiebreak. In it, Thiem jumped out to a 5-2 lead but then Karatsev won 5 points in a row to win it 7-5. After that slip-up, Thiem started looking more focused and it showed on the court. He won the 2nd set 6-3 and then completely dominated in the 3rd winning it 6-2.

Joining him in the 3rd round is Denis Shapovalov who faced Vasek Pospisil in a Canadian clash. As one might expect strong serves dominated the match with both players possessing a deadly serve. Shapovalov was the better player at the start carving out a few break points but Vasek saved them. Late in the set, Denis stepped up a bit and closed the first set out with 7-5. The 2nd set followed a similar pattern with strong serves in abundance again. Once again only one break point decided all and again it was Shapovalov who converted it to close out the match 6-4.