Dominic Thiem beats once again his dear friend Ernests Gulbis. The Austrian and the Latvian know each other very well as they share the coach and they train together, so even if there is a big gap in the rankings (Thiem is 47, Gulbis 13), Ernests doesn’t really have the upper hand against Dominic.
Gulbis started to struggle from the 5th game of the match when he was broken after winning 2 service games at love. On the other side of the net, Thiem was much more solid to concede just a break point (saved). Eventually the Austrian won 6-4 6-2 in 70 minutes. Match Stats
Thiem: I really like this court
Dominic commented “I returned very well. That’s where I think I really improved from last year. All in all, I think it was a very good performance today, not much went wrong. I really like this court, the stadium. Some courts and some stadiums are really special where you feel comfortable. You don’t know why, but here it is like this.”
Then he added “The tournament is unbelievably strong. When I saw the entry list, I was like, ‘What?’ Three semifinalists of the Australian Open! I’m happy I won the first round, so I hope I can continue.”
This is the first win for Thiem in 2015. Gulbis has a horrible 0-3 win/loss record so far.
Next vs. Granollers or Stakhovsky
Dominic will play either Granollers or Stakhovsky in the second round. Thiem leads Granollers 3-0 in h2h matches; he has never played against Stakhovsky.
