Thiem battles into Generali Open quarter-finals
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Dominic Thiem beat Sebastian Ofner to reach the quarter-finals of ATP 250 Defendi Open in Kitzbuehel
KITZBUEHEL (Reuters) - Dominic Thiem came through a tough three-setter against fellow-Austrian Sebastian Ofner to reach the quarter-finals of the ATP 250 Defendi Open in Kitzbuehel, Austria on Wednesday (July 27).
Thiem, looking to build on his semi-final appearance in the Swiss Open last Saturday (July 23) where he lost to Matteo Berrettini of Italy, was pushed hard by the world 235 before winning 6-2 3-6 6-3.
Thiem, third in the world rankings back in 2020 but now down at 199 after a long absence with a wrist injury, started the match superbly, breaking Ofner s serve to love in the opening game followed by another break in the seventh to give him an early lead.
Ofner fought back with the only break of the second set in the sixth game to level the match.
The third set began with four successive breaks, but Thiem seemed to have gained the upper hand when he broke for the third time in the set to lead 5-3.
Ofner wasn t finished, however, forcing Thiem to save two break points in the next game before Thiem won with his second match point after just under two hours of play.
He will next face Germany s Yannick Hanfmann who defeated Ivan Gakhov of Russia 6-3 6-7(5) 6-4.
Austrian Filip Misolic delighted the home crowd with a 6-4 6-0 win over Pablo Andujar of Spain.
Misolic, who celebrates his 21st birthday in less than two weeks time, made light of his ATP world ranking of 205, 107 places below Andujar, by taking a tight first set.
After two service breaks had given the Austrian a 4-2 lead, he lost his own serve for the second time at 5-3, but broke again in the tenth game to take the set.
Misolic saved a break point in the first game of the second set, but then raced through the set in 35 minutes to seal victory after Andujar served a double fault on match point.
He will meet either fourth seed Aslan Karatsev of Russia or Croatia s Dusan Lajovic in the quarter-finals.
