World No. 7 Dominic Thiem made smooth progress into the third round at Roland Garros on Wednesday as he defeated Simone Bolelli 7-5, 6-1, 6-3.
Thiem advanced in two hours and 22 minutes on Court Suzanne Lenglen, hitting 42 winners and creating 30 break point chances, six of which he converted against the No. 470-ranked Bolelli.
The 23-year-old Thiem broke into the Top 10 of the Emirates ATP Rankings on the back of reaching his first Grand Slam semi-final at Roland Garros last year (l. to Djokovic) and has not left the game’s elite since.
Looking for another strong run on the Parisian clay, Thiem came into Roland Garros in rich form, having reached his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 final in Madrid (l. to Nadal). The Austrian then became the only player so far to defeat Rafael Nadal on clay this year, ending the Spaniard’s 17-match winning run in 2017 with victory in the Rome quarter-finals.
Thiem goes on to face 25th seed Steve Johnson, who continued his emotional run into the third round, just a few weeks since his father passed away. Johnson kept his nerve to beat #NextGenATP Croatian Borna Coric 6-2, 7-6(8), 3-6, 7-6(6) in three hours and 54 minutes.
The American saved two set points at 5/6 and 7/8 in the second set tie-break and two at 4/6 in the fourth set tie-break. Having held four match point chances on Coric’s serve, when leading 5-4 in the fourth set, Johnson hit a forehand winner on his fifth point – one of his 54 outright winners - in the tie-break.
Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut won 13 of his 22 net points to beat Kazakhstan's Mikhail Kukushkin 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(3) in two hours and 55 minutes. The 17th seed will next play Czech left-hander Jiri Vesely, who hit 13 aces and won nearly 80 per cent of his first-serve points to prevail past Brit Aljaz Bedene 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3. Bedene went one for 13 on break points.
“I think I played the right style in the third and the fourth set, just those break points. It's a bit annoying when you have so many break points but you don't break,” Bedene said.
Go inside the tournament at RolandGarros.com.