British No.3 Dan Evans withstood an aggressive opening set from Dominic Thiem to tame the top seed 3-6, 6-4, 6-1, in the quarter-finals of the Sydney International.
In what was the first meeting between the two players on the tour, the start of the match looked destined to go according to the rankings. Top seed Thiem began with high intensity, hitting a army of breathtaking winners on both the forehand and backhand sides. Aided by this series of shots, the Austrian broke twice with ease to clinch the opening set.
Birmingham-born Evans was undeterred by the early offensive from his rival as his defensive play started to hinder Thiem. Fighting to stay in the rallies and forcing the top seed to hit the extra shot, a surge in Thiem errors elevated Evans to a 3-0 lead in the second set before he was pegged back to 3-3. Growing in Confidence, the Brit broke once again to lead with the help of a poor slice from Thiem. That broke proved decisive as Evans raced through the second set.
Heading into the decider, it was the British underdog that proved to be the greater force in the match as Thiem’s error count rapidly mounted. The aggressive play of the top seed was grounded down by the a more clear-thinking and consistent performance by Evans.
Nerves of getting the breakthrough win failed to trouble the Brit as Evans broke Thiem a further two times to have a stronghold in the match. It was evident that the Austrian was no longer fully committed to the match with the Australian Open starting next week. Nevertheless, Evans’ tenacity and game plan on the court would have trouble many of the world’s best players. Closing in on the biggest win of his career to date, the victory was sealed following another Thiem error.
“The first set was pretty much what I thought was going to happen.” Evans said following his quarter-final win. “I knew I would have to do a lot of running to try and put my game onto him. To come forward (on the court) and I think I did that pretty good.”
Grabbing his first ever win over a top 10 player to reach his second ATP semifinal, the 26-year-old admitted that his game plan was to frustrate Thiem. It was a plan which turned out to be a success with the world No.8 hitting four double faults and 47 unforced errors.
“I don’t have that much in my game so I got to stay in rallies for a long time and try to frustrate people. That’s I think is what I did pretty well today.” He explained.
Standing in the way of Evans’ first ATP Final is Andrey Kuznetsov, who defeated Pablo Carreno-Busta 2-6, 6-4, 6-1. The Brit will be hoping to get his revenge after losing to the Russian at Wimbledon.
“It’s another good match, he had a good win today. We just have to see what happens tomorrow,” Evans calmly said about the upcoming clash.
The other semifinal will see defending champion Viktor Troicki face Gilles Muller. Troicki progress to the last four without playing a point after Philipp Kohlschreiber withdrew due to back issues. Meanwhile, Muller downed Pablo Cuevas 7-6(5), 6-4.
