Dominic Thiem faces familiar foe Grigor Dimitrov in the fourth round of the Australian Open, as he looks to add a second Grand Slam title to his trophy shelf.
Thiem is quickly earning a reputation as one of the iron men of tennis. The Austrian plays with a kind of mulish determination in the big moments. He found himself down two sets to none in the 2020 U.S. Open final, teetering on the edge of going down to Alexander Zverev. But instead of submitting meekly to defeat, he clawed his way to his first Grand Slam title.
The world No. 3 did the same on Friday in a thrilling third-round match against Nick Kyrgios. Kyrgios, as he does at times, played lights-out tennis in front of a wildly appreciative crowd to take the first two sets. But despite the Aussie’s frequent and noisy interactions with the crowd, an underarm ace to take the second set, and his typical litany of on-court grievances (which ironically included complaints that the crowd he’d whipped into a frenzy when he was winning was far too loud when he wasn’t), Thiem kept his composure. And after four hours and with the win in hand, he applauded Kyrgios as the crowd favorite left the court.
Dmitrov has experienced a bit of a career renaissance. Once the world No. 3, Dimitrov found himself ranked 78th in the world in the summer of 2019. He’s now back to No. 21 in the world. He was tidy and efficient en route to the fourth round. Pablo Carreno Busta was forced to retire after getting bageled in the first set of their third-round match with an abdominal injury.
Thiem and Dimitrov are contemporaries, part of the generation between the Rafael Nadal/Novak Djokovic group and before NextGen-turned-to-10 stars like Stefanos Tsitsipas and Daniil Medvedev. Dimitrov holds the slight head-to-head edge at 3-2, but the two men haven’t played since 2019.
Thiem is the more consistent of the two, and decidedly holds his nerve better in big matches, But that doesn’t mean Sunday’s match will be a walk in the part for the Austrian. Dimitrov is striking the ball well, and he’s playing with confidence again. The Bulgarian will also be playing on fresher legs, thanks to his abbreviated encounter with Carreno Busta.
Cheryl pick: Thiem in 4
Ricky pick: Thiem in 4
WWW?
This can go either way, as Thiem is more tired and does not seem in his best shape. The conditions suit Dimitrov better and if he’s on a good day he can produce an “upset”. I think that he just might do that. Dimitrov in 5.
Yes, tough match this one.
The only matches I like on this day are
Karatsev and Zverev 3-0
Not going anywhere near Djokovic v Raonic
Thiem is totally flat with no energy. Is he injured ? Novak must be jumping with joy..he is cleared to play and thiem is losing
Oh Dominic 🙁 I blame Cheryl entirely…;)
Court conditions suited Dimi and I think Dom was knackered after that ago highly charged match against Nick.
I do like Dimi but he does tend to bottle it in tough matches, so here’s hoping he keeps it together going forwards.