Sixth seed Dominic Thiem wasted little time moving into the second round of Roland Garros on Sunday, requiring just 80 minutes to move past Bernard Tomic 6-4, 6-0, 6-2.
“I'm happy that I won in three sets. It was a tough opponent and a close first set,” said Thiem. “I was also a little bit nervous before the match, so because of these circumstances, I'm happy with my performance.”
Tout le talent de @ThiemDomi condensé dans ce point ! All of Thiem's talent in one point! #RG17 pic.twitter.com/WMYy0Sxoe3
— Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) May 28, 2017
From 5-4 in the first set, Thiem stormed through 12 of the next 13 games. The 23-year-old Austrian was on song from the baseline and finished with 32 winners to 16 errors. Tomic struggled to find his footing, ending the match with 10 winners to 33 unforced errors. The sixth seed improves his FedEx ATP Head2Head against Tomic to 2-0.
Next up for the Mutua Madrid Open finalist is Simone Bolelli or Nicolas Mahut. The Frenchman leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head Series 1-0, but their lone meeting took place more than three years ago.
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Ivo Karlovic, the 23rd seed, withstood a tough test from #NextGenATP player Stefanos Tsitsipas to advance 7-6(5), 7-5, 6-4. The Croatian won 43 of 64 trips to the net and hammered down 50 winners throughout the match. Karlovic, making his 12th main draw appearance at Roland Garros, looks to make the second week here for the first time.
“He can hit really hard with his forehands and backhands, but I didn't give him chance to hit a lot. It was a really difficult match. There were a couple of points that perhaps I won with my experience,” said Karlovic. “I'm pretty happy that I got through.”
Listen To Tennis RadioHe’ll play Horacio Zeballos in the second round, who opened Day One with a 7-5, 6-3, 6-4 win over Adrian Mannarino. Karlovic leads his FedEx ATP Head2Head Series over Zeballos 1-0, but will look to have significantly less time on court than his 22-20 fifth-set victory over the Argentine this January at the Australian Open.
“It was an unbelievable match in Australia. It was difficult and could have gone either way,” said Karlovic. "I like these kinds of matches and they’re the ones that you remember. Hopefully it won’t be as long as in Australia, but if it's another epic match, I'm all in.”
Zeballos picks up his first match win at the clay-court Grand Slam since 2013, equalling his best result in reaching the second round. He enters Roland Garros in strong form after reaching his first ATP World Tour semi-final in four years at the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell a month ago (l. to Nadal). He followed that up with a quarter-final finish in Munich, upsetting defending champion Philipp Kohlschreiber.
Also in action on Sunday are 11th seed Grigor Dimitrov, Frenchman Lucas Pouille and Estoril champion Pablo Carreno Busta.
Go inside the tournament at RolandGarros.com.