ATP Tournament in Winston-Salem, 2nd Round, Wednesday, 24.08.2022
While New York is already preparing for the US Open, our eyes turn once again to Winston-Salem these days. In the last preparation tournament, the men want to show what form they will bring into the final Grand Slam of 2022.
One of them is fighting hard again after a long period of suffering, but still lacks brilliant performances. He now meets the player seeded at position 1 and not only Bwin says: It’s still doable. Read now in my Thiem Dimitrov tip why I would still trust the favourite.
Dominic Thiem’s last few months, we have analysed them again and again at Betting Friends. It was quite clear to the experts how much time the Austrian would need after his injuries.
Currently 231st in the world rankings, Thiem naturally wants to get back as quickly as possible. But if the results remain as they have been lately, that will probably take quite a while.
After his quarter-final exit in Kitzbühel against Yannick Hanfmann, a respiratory illness forced him to take a short break again, but he still travelled to the USA full of self-confidence.
Before the US Open begins, where he celebrated his greatest triumph against Alexander Zverev two years ago, he wants to show further progress in Winston-Salem. After all, he has already made it through the first round.
Whoever expected high-class tennis was wrong, it was rather a fight to the very last reserves of energy of both players. Thiem met J. J. Wolf, defeated the American 6-7, 7-5, 7-6.
More than three hours of play, two hours of rain interruption and two defended match points in the tiebreak, Thiem bit his way through the match and in the end also deserved to reach the next round.
“I am so happy that I won the first match on hard court after a long time. Today luck was on my side. It’s a super thing for me that I gave myself the chance to play Grigor,” Thiem said after his success.
He knows how you have to play to beat the best player in the tournament, at least purely according to the ranking. Thiem is 2:4 in the direct comparison, the last three duels all went to Bulgaria.
Dimitrov received some advance praise from Thiem, was praised quite a bit. Now the 31-year-old has to show that he has brought the form expected of him to Winston-Salem.
In Cincinnati he was defeated by Denis Sahpovalov right at the start, in Montreal and Washington he won only one match each. With Alex de Minaur and Sebastian Korda, the players against whom he was eliminated were of course also very strong.
After he had to retire injured in the first round of Wimbledon, Dimitrov needed some time before he was back to his old level. For the first time since 2011, he is now taking part in the current tournament, Thiem was also represented here only once (2012).
It’s quite a surprise what our bookmakers expect for a close match between Dominic Thiem and Grigor Dimitrov. 1,70 to 2,10, and that although the number 231 of the world meets the number 19 here!
My Dimitrov Thiem tip
Thiem had to fight for over three hours in his 1st round match against J. J. Wolf, proving his fighting qualities. Dimitrov, however, is a different matter. His last results may have been mixed, but:
He has also had opponents who are clearly stronger than Dominic Thiem. As much as I would like to see a second success for the Austrian, I think the Bulgarian is still a bit too big and I’m betting on him:
Dimitrov beats Thiem!
