The Spanish veteran blasts past the No. 3-seed and reaches his first Masters 1000 semifinal in three years.
By Lorenzo Dellagiovanna
Cincinnati – David Ferrer put together a vintage performance on quarterfinals day at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati. The Spaniard, a top ten fixture for almost a decade, slipped all the way to No. 31 in the last couple of seasons but has suddenly rediscovered his best tennis in Ohio this week. After knocking out his fellow countryman Carreno Busta in the round of 16, Ferrer advanced to the semifinals with a surprising straight-sets win over the No. 3-seed Dominik Thiem.
The second half of the season is once again proving to be a major disappointment for the 23-year-old Austrian. Thiem is known for usually overplaying in the first six months of the season and then literally running out of gas as soon as the tour moves to North America for the US Open Series followed by the Asian Swing. 2017 has been no exception so far, with Thiem having already reached his 58th match of the season. In comparison, this was Ferrer’s 35th. In the past, the two have only played once with Thiem prevailing over the Spaniard at the 2016 Rio Open.
Despite being 11 years older than his opponent, Ferrer looked fresher and more determined to book a spot in the semifinals. The Valencia native jumped to a 3-0 lead, taking advantage of many unforced errors from the young Austrian. Ferrer served extremely well throughout the entire match winning 80% of his service points and was also very solid from the back of the court. On the other hand, Thiem looked completely off his game and was never particularly engaged in the battle.
After wrapping up the first set with a 6-3 score line, Ferrer went up 3-1 in the second set and seemed on course to an easy victory when the Austrian suddenly decided to change his strategy. With his back against the wall, Thiem started charging the net and attacking the Spaniard’s second serve. The new tactic proved successful for a few minutes with Thiem levelling the score at 3-3, but then the Austrian lost his rhythm again and committed too many unforced errors, particularly from the backhand side.
6-3, 6-3 was the final score in Ferrer’s favor, who will now face Nick Kyrgios in Saturday’s second semifinal. For Thiem, it was another disappointing loss in this North American hard-court swing after early round exits in Washington and Montreal.
