Top seed Dominic Thiem has equalled his best ever run at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna with a 6-4, 6-4, win over Sam Querrey in the second round.
Thiem, who last reached the quarter-finals of the tournament back in 2013, held firm behind his serve. Saving all three break points he faced. The world No.7 dropped only four points behind his first serve as he fired 20 winners to 17 unforced errors. In both sets, Thiem broke three games into each set.
“The match was very tough” Thiem told erstebank-open.com. “I had three good return games and broke him twice. But I had to be very concentrated when serving because I just couldn’t let him back into the match. Who knows if I would get another chance for a break again?”
As a result of his latest victory, Thiem has become only the second player this season on the ATP Tour to win 50 or more matches. Following in the footsteps of Alexander Zverev, who has won 51 matches so far this year. This week the 25-year-old is bidding to become the first Austrian to win the tournament since Jurgen Melzer back in 2010.
Next up for Thiem will be Kei Nishikori in what could be a blockbuster encounter. Nishikori dropped only four games during his 6-2, 6-2, triumph over world No.19 Karen Khachanov. Khachanov won the Kremlin Open last week. During the encounter the Japanese No.1 hit the same amount winners to unforced errors (15) and benefited from 20 errors made by his opponent.
“That will be a completely different match, with more and longer rallies. He is back in top form, just when he was no. 4 in the world and played a Grand Slam final.” Thiem commented about his upcoming meeting with Nishikori.
Thiem trails Nishikori 1-2 in their head-to-head, but won their most recent meeting at this years French Open.
Elsewhere at the tournament, Great Britain’s Kyle Edmund had his five-match winning streak on the tour ended by Spanish veteran Fernando Verdasco. Edmund, who won last week’s European Open, crashed out 6-4, 3-6, 6-3. Verdasco will next play either John Isner or Gael Monfils.
Finally, Mikhail Kukushkin followed up on his shock first round victory over Grigor Dimitrov win a 7-6(4), 6-4, triumph over Andrey Rublev. It is the first time the Kazak world No.71 has reached the quarter-final of an ATP tournament since the Eastbourne Open in June.