ATP Santiago de Chile, 1st Round, Wednesday, 01.03.2023
It’s coming, but extremely tough! Dominic Thiem is still a long way from being the player who had his way at the top of the world again. In the next few days, the Austrian wants to draw attention to himself in Santiago de Chile.
He will meet a former winner of the tournament in his 1st round match. Nevertheless: The odds at Betano and Co. are glowing red and white! In my Thiem Garin tip, I reveal why I have a long match with three sets in mind.
“It is what it is. I don’t let myself get stressed. I feel like I’ve defined myself by results for far too long.” They are words that leave Dominic Thiem’s fans somewhat perplexed: What are his goals for 2023?
The former world number three has been fighting his way back up the rankings bit by bit for a few months now and is currently ranked 99th in the world. Far away from his former form, but will he ever reach it again?
The Viennese recently said: “If he doesn’t succeed, it wouldn’t be a disaster. But of course he is not travelling to Chile without any sporting ambition. After his first-round exit at the Australian Open, he is still missing the broken knot.
In Buenos Aires, he was able to prevail against Alex Molcan with a strong performance, but a short time later against Juan Pablo Varillas, unfortunately, it was already the end of the line again.
In Rio, he completely fluffed the first set against Thiago Monteiro at 1-6. After that, he got back on his feet, but at 6-3, 6-7 it was a little too late for him to progress.
Now he will play for the first time at the Chile Open in Santiago against Cristian Garin, a local hero. The two met for the first time almost three years ago in Vienna, when Thiem won clearly 6-3, 6-2.
The Chilean, once also among the best in the world, is ranked directly behind Dominic Thiem at No. 100. His best days seem to be over, in his home country he wants to put in a good performance on court once again.
Since his elimination from the AO, Garin has been travelling around the South American region, but the desired successes have so far failed to materialise. In Cordoba he beat Pedro Martinez but later failed to beat Joao Sousa.
Two tiebreaks and once a 5-7, both matches were very close. Very similar was his only match in Rio, which interestingly was again against Pedro Martinez.
6-7, 4-6, the 26-year-old fought hard but it was not enough to win. Maybe the audience will help him now, as they are very much looking forward to the performances of the Chilean players.
It was two years ago that Garin was happy about the title in Santiago de Chile. Back then, he only beat competitors who were not in the world’s top 100. It’s a good thing that Thiem doesn’t fall into that category here.
Since he was eliminated by compatriot Alejandro Tabilo in the first round in 2022, it is by no means a matter of course that he has to make it to the last 16 or even further in this tournament.
My Thiem Garin Tip
He plods and plods, but nothing really comes of it yet. Dominic Thiem has a long way to go and is currently unable to perform consistently in two matches in a row.
It’s good that his opponent Cristian Garin is not in form. Since both have been known for rather close results recently, I can well imagine that this will also happen to us on Tuesday. Therefore, my tip is:
The duel will go into three sets!
