Tennis: Next Gen book their place in next round

MELBOURNE • Dominic Thiem admitted that he was "freaking out" after dropping two sets before beating gutsy home hope Alex Bolt at the Australian Open yesterday.

The Austrian, targeting a maiden Grand Slam crown, looked fragile as the crowd got behind the wild card, but ultimately prevailed 6-2, 5-7, 6-7 (5-7), 6-1, 6-2 in 3hr 22min to reach the third round.

World No. 5 Thiem, who has reached the past two French Open finals, is among a clutch of players tipped to make a Major breakthrough, but he was exposed at times by a player ranked 135 places below him.

"I got crazy today in the third set. I think body language was not the best because it was, of course, in my head that I should be 2-0 up... I messed it up," the fifth seed said.

"Instead of that, he really raised his level. The crowd got it going. It was, all of a sudden, a really tight third set that shouldn't happen. That's why I was freaking out inside and also outside today."

Thiem, who has never gone past the fourth round in six previous attempts, ultimately came through to set up another tricky clash, against American 29th seed Taylor Fritz.

He looked comfortable after racing through the opening set and was serving at 5-4 to go two sets in front. But the crowd was roaring for Bolt, 27, and he remarkably broke and rallied to clinch the set 7-5.

In an unbranded T-shirt and creased canary-yellow shorts, he looked like he had wandered in from one of the South Australian worksites where he worked as a manual labourer before returning to tennis in 2016.

Encouraged by the crowd, the left-hander started hitting winners from everywhere, including one around the net post.

Thiem regained his composure, however, and started to pick apart the tiring Australian with shots from a playbook he has been studying since he was a young child training with his parents.

Still pristine in his white-and-lilac kit, he was level half an hour later and he cantered to victory without facing a single break point over the final two sets.

At 26, Thiem is probably a bit old now to fit neatly into the category of "young gun" looking to break the three-year stranglehold of Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer on the four Slams.

Rafael Nadal (Esp) bt Federico Delbonis (Arg) 6-3 7-6 (7-4) 6-1, Nick Kyrgios (Aus) bt Gilles Simon (Fra) 6-2 6-4 4-6 7-5, Gael Monfils (Fra) bt Ivo Karlovic (Cro) 4-6 7-6 (10-8) 6-4 7-5, Stanislas Wawrinka (Sui) bt Andreas Seppi (Ita) 4-6 7-5 6-3 3-6 6-4, Fernando Verdasco (Esp) bt Nikoloz Basilashvili (Geo) 4-6 7-6 (7-5) 6-4, 6-4, Alexander Zverev (Ger) bt Egor Gerasimov (Blr) 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 7-5.

Belinda Bencic (Sui) bt Jelena Ostapenko (Lat) 7-5 7-5, Iga Swiatek (Pol) bt Carla Suarez Navarro (Esp) 6-3 7-5, Simona Halep (Rom) bt Harriet Dart (Gbr) 6-2 6-4, Elina Svitolina (Ukr) bt Lauren Davis (USA) 6-2 7-6 (8-6), Camila Giorgi (Ita) bt Svetlana Kuznetsova (Rus) 6-3 6-1, Angelique Kerber (Ger) bt Priscilla Hon (Aus) 6-3 6-2, Karolina Pliskova (Cze) bt Laura Siegemund (Ger) 6-3 6-3.

Djokovic, however, has identified him as one of the chasing pack to watch and, with a lengthy but not overly exhausting test behind him, the clay-court specialist looks set to move into the second week.

Fourth seed Daniil Medvedev, who is also considered one of the sport's young guns and Thiem's junior by three years, insisted a nosebleed was not a serious problem as he overcame Spanish qualifier Pedro Martinez 7-5, 6-1, 6-3.

The US Open finalist was up 5-0 in the second set when he required a medical timeout.

"It can happen to me sometimes. It's nothing," said the Russian, who won four titles last year.

Asked if it was related to tension, he replied: "No, not at all. If it is, I would be bleeding every match I play."

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS

---

AUSTRALIAN OPEN

Day 5: Singtel TV Ch114/115 & StarHub Ch208/209, 8am & 4pm