Dominic Thiem had never lost a match at the Argentina Open (7-0) heading into Friday evening's quarter-final against home favourite Guido Pella. And while the left-handed Pella produced an inspired performance, the World No. 6 moved into the semi-finals with a 7-6(7), 6-4 victory. It could be déjà vu for Thiem, who is now within two matches of winning his first clay-court event of the season for the third year in a row. After saving five set points prior to the first-set tie-break, Pella earned two set points of his own at 6/4. But Thiem simply was too good in the key moments, earning his 10th tour-level triumph of the campaign. The Austrian will face an in-form Gael Monfils, who...
Gael Monfils might have to come back to South America for the “Golden Swing” in future years. The Frenchman, who played his first ATP World Tour match on the continent last week in Quito, won another match during the clay-court swing on Thursday, beating Serbia's Dusan Lajovic 6-4, 6-3 at the Argentina Open in Buenos Aires. Monfils' return game carried him. The Frenchman won 52 per cent of the points that started on Lajovic's racquet (36/69), almost a higher percentage than Monfils won on his own serve, 56 per cent (37/66). [ALSO LIKE] He will next meet Argentina's Leonardo Mayer, who saved two of three break points to upset fourth seed Fabio Fognini 6-3, 6-3. Guillermo Garcia-Lopez also participated in the...
Dominic Thiem improved to 6-0 at the Argentina Open on Wednesday, beating home favourite Horacio Zeballos 6-4, 6-3 in his attempt to repeat his 2016 title at the ATP World Tour 250 event. The Austrian erased the lone break point and, although he finished the second-round contest in a quick 90 minutes, Thiem will look to improve upon his break-point conversion rate – he was three for 10 against Zeballos, a 2010 quarter-finalist, on Estadio Guillermo Vilas. [ALSO LIKE] Six of Thiem's eight ATP World Tour titles have come on clay, and the surface is by far his best, according to his FedEx ATP Win/Loss Record. Thiem is 84-30 on clay, a winning percentage of 74. On grass, he's 13-11...
Gael Monfils needed one hour, five minutes to overcome Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas, 6-1, 6-4 in the first round of the Argentina Open in Buenos Aires on Tuesday. Monfils won 75 per cent of his first serve points, and converted on his two break point opportunities. With the win, Monfils moved to 4-1 in his FedEx ATP Head2Head series against Cuevas. The No. 43-ranked Frenchman will play Dusan Lajovic in the next round. Lajovic was a 7-6(4), 6-1 winner over Argentine qualifier Facundo Bagnis on Monday. [ALSO LIKE] Fifth seed Diego Schwartzman, the highest-seeded Argentine in the singles draw, broke five times to beat Andreas Haider-Maurer of Austria. Schwartzman is attempting to become the first homegrown champion in Buenos Aires since David...
