US Open in New York, 2nd round, Wednesday, Aug 30, 2023
Dominic Thiem won a first round match in a major tournament for the first time since the Australian Open in 2021. The Austrian sent Alexander Bublik home with an emphatic 6-3, 6-2, 6-4.
Ben Shelton will welcome him in round two. Thiem will play the local hero for the second time this year.
The spell is broken. Thiem succeeded after a long time to enter a second major round. At the French Open and Wimbledon, he lost to Pedro Cachin and Stefanos Tsitsipas still narrowly in five sets.
The place where he celebrated his only Grand Slam title so far seems to turn out to be a good place. He gave Bublik no chance in three sets.
“Today is a special day. I haven’t won a Grand Slam match since the Australian Open in 2021. That was a long time. I couldn’t have picked a better place to win,” he summed up after the match.
His Kazakh opponent produced errors on the run. Only 48 percent of his first serves were successful. He presented Thiem with 17 double fault gifts.
Shelton will definitely not make it that easy for him. The betting providers are expecting a close thriller on Wednesday. The victory odds are close at Interwetten, slight advantages for Shelton (1.80) over Thiem (2.00).
On the tour, the 30-year-old Thiem could already defeat the ten years younger man from Atlanta, even very clearly with 6-2, 6-2.
But it was a match with completely different omens. It was the first tournament for the US talent on European soil. Moreover, it was played on clay, still a foreign surface for him.
In the years before he only played in the United States. In 2022, he did not play a single match on the red clay.
He now has home court again at the US Open, in terms of land and surface. Shelton will be much more competitive than he was in April, Thiem also knows. “On hardcourt Shelton feels comfortable, was in the quarterfinals at the Australian Open. He has an incredible pull in his arm.”
Preparation for New York, however, went moderately for Shelton. He faced Jungcheng Shang at the start in Atlanta and Washington, both times defeating him.
In the Masters tournaments of Toronto and Cincinnati he made the second round in each case. Carlos Alcaraz and Stefanos Tsitsipas were the final stops. However, he fought his way into tiebreaks against both top-10 stars.
Shelton started the US Open opener with a win over Cachin, coming back strongly after clearly losing the first set: 1-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4.
Thiem, on the other hand, did not play on a hard court again until the US Open due to gastritis. In early August, he still reached the final of Kitzbühel, but missed the triumph in his home country against Sebastian Baez (3-6, 1-6).
My Thiem Shelton Tip
Thiem vs Shelton, this should be one of the big bangers on Wednesday. Although Thiem was able to win the first duel clearly, but now competes against the tennis talent under completely different conditions.
The Austrian will not be allowed to make many mistakes. In the first round, Shelton used all four break chances against Cachin. He was also very efficient in the matches before that.
I expect a duel at eye level with long sets. A match of three to five hours should be possible, in any case a fourth set.
My Thiem Shelton tip: Over 3,5 sets
