EASYominic Thiem beat Roberto Bautista Agut 7-6 (5), 3-6, 6-4 to reach the quarterfinals of the ATP250 tournament in Bastad, Sweden on Thursday.
Former US Open champion Thiem returned to professional tennis in March this year after being sidelined for nine months with a wrist injury sustained at the 2021 Mallorca Championships. On Tuesday, the 28-year-old tennis player was 28 years old. The Austrians got their first win in 426 days when they beat Emil Ruusuvuori of Finland 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (5) in the opening round.
In the round of 16, facing world number 20 Bautista Agut, Thiem took a 2-5 lead in the opening set before coming back to win 7-5 in the tiebreak. However, the Spaniard 4th seed hit the Austrian twice in the second set and sealed the score 6-3.
World No. 339 Thiem, who reached his career-high 3rd place in March 2020, had a crucial break in the fifth match of his final set and tried to serve to win to make it through. his first tournament quarter-final since the 2021 Madrid Masters.
“Winning against Emil makes me confident that I can compete with the best players in the world and today against Roberto,” said the Austrian.
“He was always such a difficult opponent to play. I was expecting and hoping it would be a close match. Then when I won the first set in the match, I said ‘Hey, I can win today.’ I had faith until the end of the game and the third set was really good.”
In the final match of the eighth round, Thiem will face Argentine eighth seed Sebastian Baez, who beat Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 6-2, 6-3 in the round of 16 match. team.
(With input from AFP)
