Nicolas Jarry shocked top seed Dominic Thiem on his favorite surface in Hamburg on Friday, handing the Austrian a 7-6, 7-6 defeat in the quarterfinal round.
Thiem served for the first set and held three set points in the second set, but he lost his lead on both occasions as the 22-year-old Chilean found excellent form late in each frame.
No. 2 seed Diego Schwartzman lost in three sets to defending champion Leo Mayer and No. 3 seed Pablo Carreno Busta fell in straight sets to Nikoloz Basilashvili, leaving no seeds remaining, but Thiem’s loss marked arguably the most notable result on the brief summer clay swing.
Thiem saved just two of the five break points he faced as neither player excelled on his serve. Each player won exactly 91 points, but Jarry cobbled together streaks of three or more at the back end of both tiebreaks.
In the second one, the world No. 69 earned a match point on his serve after a perfect curved forehand, then got a second after Thiem misfired badly at the net. A series of big Jarry forehands pushed Thiem into the corner, and he eventually could only plop a response into the doubles alley.
The second set had opened with four consecutive breaks, just after Jarry took advantage of his first set point when Thiem launched a cross-court forehand just wide. The world No. 8, who has two titles on clay this season, played a loose game at 5-4 in the first set to allow Jarry back in.
Schwartzman, meanwhile, lost his serve four times in the final set, going from 3-1 up — after breaking at love — to losing five straight games as his fellow Argentine secured a 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 win. Schwartzman won a weak nine of 33 second serve points and was broken six times.
Mayer, who has amazingly won his only two career titles in Hamburg, did not play a statistically superb match, but converted his break points at an effective rate and held his nerve in the topsy-turvy final set. He would seem a heavy favorite to reach a third Hamburg final against Josef Kovalik, after the Slovakian qualifier beat Thiago Monteiro in three sets.
Carreno Busta, meanwhile, fell victim to a superbly hitting Basilashvili, who hit 28 winners to Carreno Busta’s eight in the 7-6, 6-4 win. The Georgian qualifier came from behind in the opening set tiebreak, closing it in style with an ace, then rebounded from losing a second set break by breaking at love in the final game, hitting a crisp backhand into the open court to secure his semifinal meeting with Jarry.
