Thiem saved by rain at Rio Open
Thiem saved by rain at Rio Open
(Reuters) - Top seed Dominic Thiem of Austria was saved by the rain when trailing 6-7(4) 1-2 to Italian Gianluca Mager in their quarter-final of the Rio Open in Brazil on Friday (February 21).
Thiem, winner of the title in 2017 and ranked four in the world, dropped his serve in the fourth game to the 128th ranked Italian before breaking back three games later.
In the tiebreak, Thiem trailed by three set points, saving the first when Mager mistimed his service return and struck umpire Mohamed Lahyani who smiled as he accepted the Italian’s apology.
Unfortunately for Thiem, he lost the tiebreak on the next point, hitting a weak forehand into the net and shortly after, things got worse for the Austrian as a forehand drifted wide to gift Mager, playing only his eighth tour-level match, a break of serve to trail 2-1 in the second set.
Play was then suspended when rain began falling in the next game, and as the rain became worse, the match was postponed until Saturday (February 22).
Rain also affected the earlier quarter-final between Cristian Garin of Chile and Argentine Federico Coria with play interrupted after Garin drew level by winning the second set. After the resumption, Garin took the match 2-6 6-3 7-5 to set up a semi-final against Borna Coric of Croatia, a 7-6(5) 6-3 winner over Lorenzo Sonego of Italy.
The fourth quarter-final between Attila Balazs of Hungary and Spaniard Pedro Martinez was also delayed until Saturday with Martinez leading 6-2 2-2.
