Dominic Thiem beat fourth seed Francisco Cerundolo of Argentina in the quarterfinals at the ATP Gijon Open on Friday after a match lasting around two hours. The 29-year-old Austrian will now take on top seed Andrey Rublev of Russia in the semifinal on Saturday. But what were the keys to his win over Cerundolo?
#1 Thiem played it safe:
Thiem adopted a cautious approach from the beginning of the match, not trying to put too much power into his groundstrokes. He imparted a fair amount of top-spin into his forehand to ensure he was keeping the ball in play and allowed Cerundolo to commit mistakes. However, there were occasional flashes of brilliance from the Austrian, including a few trademark down-the-line backhand. Thiem broke the Argentine in the seventh game of the first set and then continued to hold his serve to seal the first set. It looked like a tall order for Cerundolo from that point onwards.
#2 Cerundolo committed too many errors:
Cerundolo was probably too aggressive for his own good, taking too many risks as he tried to hit through Thiem. He played a very ambitious down-the-line backhand that went wide when facing a break in the seventh game. Again, facing the set point in the opener, he drilled a backhand into the net. The Argentine did manage to hit a lot of winners off his forehand and ended up with 18 of them in the match against Thiem’s eight. However, he also committed 28 unforced errors against Thiem’s 11 and that proved to be decisive.
#3 Cerundolo struggled with his first serve:
Cerundolo struggled with his first serve throughout the match, managing to win only 56% of the points behind it while Thiem managed 70%. That was a major difference as neither player was particularly impressive with their second delivery, winning 42% of the points apiece. Thiem again managed to stay a break up in the second set as the Argentine was broken five times in the match. The Austrian did not have to work too hard in the second set either, engaging in crosscourt exchanges frequently and waiting for Cerundolo to commit errors, though he will have been frustrated to drop serve twice.
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