Ernests Gulbis and Dominic Thiem, who share coach Gunter Bresnik and are constant practice partners at almost every tournament on their schedules, will go head-to-head in the second round of the U.S. Open. They set up what will be the first installment at the main-draw level of this friendly rivalry by winning entirely routine openers on Wednesday.
Thiem got Bresnik’s successful day started on the right foot by destroying Lukas Lacko 6-3, 6-3, 6-2. The 20-year-old did not drop serve a single time over the course of just one hour and 26 minutes.
Gulbis followed suit on the Grandstand, the same court on which he enjoyed his true breakout on tour back in 2007–when he crushed then-world No. 8 Tommy Robredo in easy straight sets to reach the fourth round. The Latvian rolled over Kenny De Schepper this time around, cruising 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 in one hour and 34 minutes.
“I think he’s going to be happy somebody’s in third round,” Gulbis answered when asked whom Bresnik would root for on Friday. “We have a good relation. He gave a lot to me by helping me to practice. Because if I see young guy who is so motivated and so eager to practice, let’s say I have to be not worse than him, so I push myself even more through that. When he saw me pushing more, then he was pushing more. It’s a win-win situation.”
Someone will have to lose, of course, just as one did when they squared off in a qualifying match two summers ago in Winston-Salem. Gulbis dominated 6-4, 6-3 while out-acing Thiem 11-0.
“I think it’s a little bit tougher on Dominic,” Gulbis said of the matchup. “He really doesn’t want to play [against] me, because we played one match in [Winston-Salem] in qualifying. I played a terrible match, but he couldn’t [beat] me just because it was against me. It was a really bad quality match, so hopefully it’s going to be better quality.”
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