![](https://www3.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/2016+Australian+Open+Day+1+AcfykaHbkP9l.jpg)
Thiem is the first Austrian since Jurgen Melzer to reach the fourth round at the Australian Open (Zimbio.com)
Austrian eighth seed Dominic Thiem moved into the fourth round of the Australian Open after he edged mercurial Frenchman Benoit Paire 61 46 64 64 early on Saturday.
Thiem had dropped a set in each of his two rounds against Jan-Lennard Struff and Jordan Thompson respectively, and continued the trend in his match with the Frenchman.
Thiem came out and started strongly, breaking Paire in his first service game, and then holding for a three-love lead. Paire at least got on the board, but Thiem added a second break for a one-sided first set.
Paire rarely plays a match against a big player without finding at least some form, and so it proved it the second, the Frenchman improving to take care of matters on his own serve, and then break late in the set to level the scores.
However, Thiem’s backhand kicked into gear in the third all it took was for the Frenchman to go absent in one service game, and the Austrian led by two-sets-to-one. Thiem broke in the first game of the fourth, when Paire played an ill-advised drop shot into the net. Paire showed some mettle though, rattling off the next three games, looking to force a fifth and deciding set. Thiem’s retrieved the break, but immediately handed it back yet again, with a poor smash off of a relatively short defensive shot from Paire contributing to a poor game from the Austrian.
Paire just could not keep his consistency either though, and Thiem was once again back on serve. It was the Austrian who then broke again, to serve for the match. He helped Paire back into the game at deuce, but eventually sealed the win when Paire could only push a service return into the tramlines.
Thiem betters his result from last year, where he went out in third round. For Paire, he earns eighty points because he had lost in the first round last year.
Thiem will face David Goffin in the fourth round after the Belgian sealed a little piece of history. The eleventh seed defeated the 6’11 Ivo Karlovic 63 62 64, giving a master-class in how to break a big-server regularly. The win was rather easier than Goffin’s five-set marathon in the first round against American qualifier Reilly Opelka, who is also 6’11. Goffin becomes the first player to defeat both these players in the same grand slam tournament.
Though Karlovic had won his second round in straight sets, he had played a first round match against Horacio Zeballos that had lasted more than five hours, and it could easily have had an effect on the thirty-eight year-old twentieth seed. Reaching the third round represents a good effort for the big-serving veteran.
Goffin owns a narrow head-to-head lead against Thiem, leading 4-3, including a four-set win against the Austrian in the Australian Open last year in the third round. Thiem levelled the head-to-head in grand slam tournaments by winning at Roland Garros, also in four, en route to his first grand slam semi-final.