Dominic Thiem beat Gilles Simon 6-4 6-2 after 1 hour and 24 minutes to reach the third round at the Rolex Masters at the Accorhotel Arena in Paris Bercy. The Austrian player has scored his 51st win of the season. He now leads 8-2 in his 10 head-to-head matches against the French player.
Thiem converted five of his six break points, won 77 % of his first serve points and hit 20 winners to 24 unforced errors. Simon produced nine winners and 19 unforced errors.
Thiem earned an early break in the opening game with a volley winner at the net and went up a double break in the third game to open up a 4-0 lead. Simon, who forced Roger Federer to the third set in last week’s quarter final in Basel, pulled one break back, as Thiem was serving for the first set. Thiem fired four winners in the 10th game to close out the first set 6-4.
In the second set Thiem broke three times in a row to race out to a 5-0 lead. Simon got one break back for 1-5, as Thiem was serving for the match. Thiem served it out wiith a service winner on his second match point. The Austrian player is currently ranked in the ATP Race to London and is bidding to qualify for the third consecutive year.
“I knew I had to start well, because he was playing good tennis yesterday. I sorted out well at the end. It would be very nice to qualify for the ATP Finals for the third consecutive year and a great effort for the season. I am in pole position and I hope to achieve this goal at the end. I put a lot of pressure to my opponent”, said Thiem in the post-match interview.
“It was a difficult match especially at the end. He played well without any faults. Every time there was 30-all, He made the right decisions every time. I could not play the match I wanted”, said Simon.
In tomorrow’s third round Thiem will face Borna Coric, who beat Danil Medvedev 6-4 6-4. The Croatina player has improve his head-to-head record against Medvedev to 4-1. Coric earned one break in the ninth game to win the first set 6-4. The Croatian player converted his second break point in the first game of the second set before saving a break point to hold his serve at deuce in the sixth game for 4-2. He won his next two service games easily to seal the win.
Kevin Anderson edged past this year’s Hamburg and Beijing winner Nikoloz Basilashvili 6-3 6-7 (3-7) 7-6 (7-3) after 2 hours and 15 minutes to score his 45th win of the season. Anderson has improved his head-to-head record against Basilashvili to 2-0 after beating the Georgian player 6-4 6-3 in Miami last March.
There were just six break points and just one break of serve in a close match. Anderson hit 31 winners to 30 unforced errors.
The South African player got the only break of the match in the eighth game to take a 5-3 lead and served out for the first set in the next game. Anderson saved three break points to hold his serve at the second deuce in the sixth game for 3-3. Both players went on serve in the next games until the tie-break, where Basilashvili took the 7-3 edge. Basilashvili saved two breaks points to hold his serve in the 10th game to draw level to 5-5 setting up a second tie-break. Anderson sealed the 7-3 win.
Tunisian lucky loser Malek beat Fernando Verdasco 7-6 (7-5) 1-6 6-3 after 2 hours and 24 minutes.
