Dominic Thiem and Stefanos Tsitsipas will kick off their Lyon campaigns when they help wrap up second-round action on Thursday afternoon. They may have their hands full with Cameron Norrie and Tommy Paul, respectively.
(1) Dominic Thiem vs. Cameron Norrie
Thiem and Norrie will be going head-to-head for the second time in their careers when they clash in round two of the Lyon Open on Thursday. Their only previous meeting came three years ago on the hard courts of Acapulco, where Thiem prevailed 6-3, 5-7, 7-5. Clay obviously gives the Austrian a bigger advantage. Although his one Grand Slam triumph has come at the U.S. Open, he is a two-time French Open runner-up and has done most of his best work on the slow stuff. Thiem recently bounced back from an extended absence with a semifinal showing at the Madrid Masters.
Norrie, on the other hand, used to be a fish out of water on clay. However, the 49th-ranked Brit has reinvented himself on this surface with nine main-tour victories this spring plus successful qualification in Rome. He continued his fine form with a 7-5, 6-3 defeat of Corentin Moutet in the Lyon first round. Norrie will get a lot of balls back in play, but Thiem’s return has been mostly encouraging so far and he will be eager to get a few more matches under his belt in advance of Roland Garros.
Pick: Thiem in 2
Tommy Paul vs. (2) Stefanos Tsitsipas
Tsitsipas is quite simply looking like one of the top title contenders at the upcoming French Open. The world No. 5 leads the race to Turin thanks in part to a stellar run on clay that includes his first-ever Masters 1000 title in Monte-Carlo and a runner-up performance in Barcelona. Tsitsipas lost relatively early in Madrid to Casper Ruud and then got a rough draw in Rome, where he ran into top-ranked Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals and lost a 4-6, 7-5, 7-5 thriller.
Thursday also marks the second career contests between Tsitsipas and Paul. They previously faced each other at the 2019 Citi Open in Washington, D.C., where the Greek got the job done 6-3, 7-5. Paul is no slouch on clay. The 53rd-ranked American advanced one round in both Monte-Carlo and Madrid before successfully qualifying in Rome. He earned his eighth ATP-level match victory of the year by beating a rusty Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-3, 6-3 on Tuesday in Lyon. This may not be a walk in the park for Tsitsipas, but it’s hard to see him losing to anyone outside the top 20 on clay these days.
Pick: Tsitsipas in 2
WWW?
Thiem & Tpas, both in 2.
what has happened to Thiem?
he just doesn’t seem the same since he won the USO.
Norrie was always going to be tough
Whats happened to Schwartzman ? He also needs to get his act together before RG
Yeah Norrie was always going to be tough. Coming straight from an expert.
When since does Thiem lose sets to someone like Norrie on clay?
But here we have an expert that know what no one else does.
This forum just gets more toxic by the day
Did you see Norrie play in Estoril?
Was Arthur Rinderknech always going to be tough for Sinner also?
Please fill me on your expert knowledge and foresight. I’ve only been watching rhe game since the early 80s (McEnroe v Borg days) but im always keen to learn off someone that has been watching it for the past decade or so and knows more than me.
I’m watching longer than that
I can tell you right now that ever since I started participating on US sites and forums, my life satisfaction level has deteriorated to levels I’ve never experienced before. I wonder why that is.
Why don’t you stop participating since US Americans are so intolerable? Find yourself a happy place. Seriously, you whine and complain and sound utterly miserable most of the time 😊
Your participation here is entirely voluntary. If you are miserable you have only yourself to blame. Btw many of the participants here are Brits.
Fuck off you opportunistic cunt.
Whoo!…nice language anonymous!..what’s your problem?candy got stolen?u behaved like an 8 year old kid!…BEHAVED!…This is all my respectable Rafans!
Hohohoho!…Anonymous is a bitter person.Come in here just to fight with people.Not to discuss tennis!
This comment should get this creep banned. There is NO excuse for this kind of filthy, sexist, mysogynistic garbage to pollute this site.
This is something with a clear agenda. Here to cause trouble, does out his anti-American bile and just generally pick fights with people.
You are a disgrace.
This comment should get this creep banned. There is NO excuse for this kind of filthy, sexist, mysogynistic garbage to pollute this site.
This is something with a clear agenda. Here to cause trouble, does out his anti-American bile and just generally pick fights with people.
You are a disgrace.
Hope so; you’d be doing me the favor. That language should serve as a wakeup call. It’s s shame I have to resort to that to get the message across.
If you can’t work it out< I will give you a hand. You guys operate with a motive, an agenda, whereas I do not. You collude and scheme with each other whereas I do not. You are also very opportunistic at wrestling control and finding faults in others to make yourselves feel better. I find that very opportunistic and unethical. You probably can't see it because most people operate via their subconscious rather than their conscious.
By calling me miserable, he was being opportunistic in putting me down to make himself feel dominant, so I was well within my rights to reciprocate.
Im not miserable, I’m telling you how many you suck. There is a difference.
“much”
Of course its voluntary and I was doing you guys a favor. It’s a shame you guys couldn’t see that.
NNY, unfortunately, Ricky doesn’t have the time to read comments here or value a civilized and respectful conversation.
When Rafa is playing the content is better, perhaps Ricky is around. It’s a crapshoot on most days. This anon doesn’t even make sense he/she is out of control. (It) is full of so much hate and paranoia there is no way of communicating with it. It is someone in need of psychiatric help.
Elizabeth,
You said it all! Brava! Someone should be monitoring the content of posts here. That language is unacceptable and would get anyone who used it banned from any forum.
I sense this person has serious psychiatric problems. Making up bizarre conspiracies. Seeing things that are not there. For the most part people here try to ignore this character. But he is very agitated and seems to be looking for a fight.
His anti-American bias is disturbing and has no place here. This is not a political site. But you see these disturbed people come out with their venom, hate and misery.
This is someone who does one give a damn about tennis. Which is a shame, because the people here genuinely love the sport and enjoy talking about it.
I think once someone resorts to filthy, vile language then they have earned the right to be kicked off this forum.
Norrie has been playing really well and deserved to beat struggling Thiem
I never got to watch Geneva all week I didnt realise Amazon werent covering it but Im watching the final replay now
Norrie beat KK too. Very easily, saw the match.
Ruud beat Schap., as you say irritatingly AP didn’t show it. Schap has kind of plateaued.
Really good final and semis in Geneva,watched it on tennistv. Looking good for RG for these players esp Ruud,could reach the second week.
Gave up on tennistv as it doesn’t broadcast slams. Think you are in UK? Next week we have the joy that is Andrew Castle on ITV3…:(
I’m in NI
Never watch ITV3 but have Eurosport for the Slams
Really good final and semis in Geneva,watched it on tennistv. Looking good for RG for these players esp Ruud,could reach the second week.
Ruud is good but he can be caught out by leaning too much to backhand