ÖTV: Paris – Percy: Tim submits to New Baker’s apprentice, Ron

After two qualifying victories and a successful first-round main draw clash pitting the former Grand Slam winner against Swiss veteran Stan Wawrinka (ATP 51), Dominic Thiem’s ​​final stop at the Rolex Paris Masters was the second main round. The Lower Austrian (ATP 108) was defeated by sixth seeded Dane Holger Vitus Nodskov Rönn (ATP 7) 4:6, 2:6 after 91 minutes of play on the upcoming Wednesday-Thursday night a few minutes after midnight. With previous successes, Thiem may now have secured his place in the main competition for the Australian Open in Melbourne 2024. The 30-year-old managed to collect 70 ATP points at the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in the French capital, with which he clearly returned to the Top 100 points in the live ATP rankings and is currently ranked 92nd. Experience has shown that a position in the top 100 is enough for a demotion, and it is unlikely that he will be able to lose it by the end of the year. He will finish next season at the ATP 250 tournament in Metz, France as well.

Thiem had lost his only encounter so far with the 20-year-old Scandinavian, who had recently been training under former German tennis legend Boris Becker, by a score of 2:6, 4:6 in Monte Carlo next April. This time it was all about the result, but not the winner. Tim presented himself exactly on equal footing with Ron in the first set and scored only four fewer points. The Lichtenwörth man also had his first break chance at 2:1, but suffered his first break point at 3:3 with three double faults. Ron also wavered frequently on his serve games, but the bottom line is that Thiem was unable to convert any of the five break opportunities he had, spread across three return games, and he was also unable to capitalize on two other situations in the 0:30 mark. At 3:4 the score was 0:40, which it reached thanks to two double faults from Ron – but the break did not work and neither did at 0:30 in the last match. In the second round, Thiem dropped his serve after fighting to make it 1:2 and trailed 1:5 after missing a break point to make it 2:4. Shortly thereafter, he confidently dispatched Ron to reach the last 16.

Erler/Midler is also subject to world-class opposition

For Alexander Erler and Lukas Midler, a working day has never been more enjoyable. Because Tyrol (ATP double 41) and Lower Austria (ATP double 42), who slipped onto the court as substitutes due to short-term cancellations, lost in the round of 16 of the doubles tournament to fifth seed Marcel Granollers of Spain (ATP double Pro 10) and Horacio Zeballos of Argentina (ATP doubles 9) after 1:16 hours of play late Wednesday evening with 5:7 and 4:6. The two destroyed their only two break points for a long time at 3:3, but from 5:4 onwards they lost five straight games in all sets. They were unable to overcome the early deficit in the second set and there was no chance of a break until the end. Although Granollers/Zeballos were also missing, they managed to make their progress with finesse. With their wins over Germans Kevin Krawietz (ATP Doubles 15) and Tim Butz (ATP Doubles 22) some 24 hours earlier, Erler/Midler were still able to earn €11,870 in prize money and 90 ATP points per head.