During the day 3 of the Moselle Open, played on indoor hard courts, Dominic Thiem, Julien Benneteau and Gilles Muller were the first men who reached the quarterfinals after straight sets wins.
First seeded Dominic Thiem managed to win two close sets against German qualifier Peter Gojowczyk 7-5 7-6(2) in 1 hour and 28 minutes of play. Both players served well (13 aces for Gojowczyk, 12 for Thiem), but the Austrian did not face any break point and won the 76% of service points in the match.
In the quarterfinals, he will face Luxembourg’s big serving Gilles Muller, who got the better of Georgia’s Nikoloz Basilashvili 6-4 6-2. Muller, who has been playing a brilliant season so far, hit 28 aces in two matches in Metz and faced only two break points, without getting broken. It will not be an easy match for the first seed at all.
Another player who moved into the quarterfinals is French veteran Julien Benneteau, who defeated in-form Dustin Brown 6-3 6-4, overcoming 14 aces. Brown, who improved his best ranking at 68 this week, won only the 47% of second serve points (compared to the 73% for the Frenchman), while Benneteau played a very solid match, attacking and returning well.
Furthermore, the first round matches were completed. German 26 year-old Jan Lennard Struff eliminated the wild card and former champion Tommy Robredo 7-6(5) 7-5 in 1 hour and 32 minutes. The Spaniard, who was playing his first Atp World Tour event since February due to a right elbow surgery, came back from 5-3 down in the second before losing the final two games.
French doubles specialists Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert both found convincing wins, as the first ousted wild card Quentin Halys 6-3 6-4, and the second hit 12 aces to knock out Inigo Cervantes 7-6(3) 6-2.
Also, Ukraine’s Illya Marchenko saved two match points to beat Italy’s Andreas Seppi 6-7(1) 6-3 7-6(4) and Tunisia’s Malek Jaziri faced no break points in a 6-4 7-6(3) win on Croatia’s Ivan Dodig.
An interesting fact is that 179 service games were played during the day, and only 21 of them were breaks (11,7%). This shows how important a break of serve is in these conditions of play.
