Thiem in the main draw and Ofner an unfortunate defeat

A win and a defeat for first- and second-placed Austria in the second and final qualifying round for the Rolex Paris Masters. Sebastian Offner was forced to concede defeat at the ATP Masters 1000 hard court tournament in Paris-Bercy on Sunday afternoon. Second seed Styria (ATP 44) lost 6:7 (7), 2:6 to 14th seed Dutchman Boteach van de Zandschulp (ATP 65) – and can therefore only hope to advance to the main competition as a lucky loser. But Dominic Thiem qualified with the same result on the afternoon alone. The Lower Austrian (ATP 99) beat twelve-ranked Australian Christopher O’Connell (ATP 61) 6:4, 6:3. In the first main round he will now face Swiss Stan Wawrinka (ATP 45), who has a record of 1:3 against him, in a duel between former Grand Slam champions. The two teams had already faced each other at this stage in 2014, with the Swiss having the better score 6:4, 7:6 (6).

Ofner misses 3 set pieces, and Thiem is confident

First, Offner defeated French wild card Terrence Attman (ATP 137) 5:7, 7:5, 6:4. But against Van de Zandschulp, luck was not on his side in the decisive stage this time. St. Mariner came back from a 0:4 deficit in the first set, was already ahead 6:4 in the tiebreak and wasted a total of three set points, including “sitting out” on a half-empty court in the final set. Point – Van de Zandschulp even did better and hit the ball in the first set. In the second round, Ofner was again down 4-0 and could not improve. On Saturday, Thiem defeated Italian Lorenzo Sonego, seeded sixth (52nd ATP), 6:1, 4:6, 7:5. However, against O’Connell, he presented himself with extreme confidence and did not allow a single hit against him. The 2020 US Open winner missed the first three breaks and set the points at 5:4 and 0:40, but scored after a match ball for the ‘Aussie’ to make it 5:5 on his fourth chance. In the second set he again used his first chance at 4:3 to make the initial decision.