An inglorious exit from the road. Very clumsy, Dominic Thiem was eliminated as soon as he entered the running at Roland-Garros by Hugo Dellien (87th in the world), Sunday May 22 (6-3, 6-2, 6-4). The Austrian leaves the tournament by the very back door, a year after having already fallen at this stage of the competition against Pablo Andujar. Relegated to 194th place in the ATP rankings after nine months without playing, the 28-year-old right-hander is unable to recover.
Still as powerful in his strikes (29 winning shots against 15), Thiem experienced a crippling loss at this level, with 42 unforced errors, against 14 for his opponent. Worse, the Austrian, broken four times in the match, has never won a game on his opponent’s service. Under these conditions, the 2h01 of play looked like a long way of the cross. Suffering from the wrist for several months, the ex-world number 3 tried to keep up the pace physically, and especially flinched technically. This is where the most worrying.
For the seventh consecutive time, Thiem does not pass the first round of a tournament. He has been chasing a victory on the circuit for a year now. His two consecutive finals in Paris, lost against Rafael Nadal in 2018 and 2019, seem so far away…
Dominic #Thiem since May 13, 2021:
0 wins, 11 losses
4 sets won, 23 sets conceded
Current series of 12 sets conceded
World No. 4 -> World No. 190 pic.twitter.com/Qda3LVE1xE— Game, Set and Maths (@JeuSetMaths) May 22, 2022
As a symbol of his downgrading, Thiem, who had played his last 17 Parisian matches on one of the two main courts, fell on the Simonne-Mathieu court on Sunday. Even with a public won over to his cause, “Domi” could not overthrow Hugo Dellien, whose adversity, admittedly tough, was frankly not insurmountable.
A good defender, the Bolivian offers himself a prestigious victory. At 28, he passes the first round of a Major for the third time in his career, and will challenge Nuno Borges or Karen Khachanov.