BASTAD, July 15 — Dominic Thiem followed up his first win in 14 months with a 7-6 (7/5), 3-6, 6-4 victory over Roberto Bautista Agut to reach the Bastad quarter-finals on Thursday.
The 28-year-old former world number three, now ranked a lowly 339, missed the second half of 2021 due to a wrist injury and arrived in Sweden with a 0-6 tour-level record in 2022.
However, he beat Finn Emil Ruusuvuori on Wednesday and backed it up with the two-hour and 41-minute win over fourth seeded Spaniard Bautista Agut.
“The win against Emil gave me confidence that I can compete against the best players in the world and today against Roberto,” said the Austrian.
“He is always such a tough opponent. I was expecting and hoping it would be a close match. Then when I won the first set in the tie-break I said ‘Hey, I can win today.’ I had the belief until the end of the match and the third set was really good.” — AFP