Dominic Thiem kicks off his ATP World Tour Finals campaign with a three-set win over Stefanos Tsitsipas to avenge his defeat to the Greek man in the final at last year’s tournament
- Dominic Thiem kicked off his campaign at The O2 with a hard-fought victory
- Stefanos Tsitsipas forced a decider but was broken early in the third set by Thiem
- Rafael Nadal will play Andrey Rublev later on Sunday in the London 2020 group
Dominic Thiem defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas in three sets in the opening singles match of this year’s ATP World Tour Finals to avenge his defeat at the hands of Tsitsipas in the final of last year’s tournament.
The Austrian came from 1-4 down in the first-set tiebreak to edge past the Greek, before a decisive break in the third game of the second set was enough for Tsitsipas to force a decider in this year’s singles curtain-raiser at The O2.
Dominic Thiem ground out an important opening victory against Stefanos Tsitsipas at The O2
Tsitsipas saw his first-serve percentage plummet to 47% with Thiem hitting the more freely
However, the US Open champion broke Tsitsipas in the 22-year-old’s first service game in the third set as Thiem’s aggressive hitting paid off to wrap up a 7-6 4-6 6-3 victory in two hours and 17 minutes.
Rafael Nadal and Andrey Rublev are the other two players in the London 2020 group, with the pair facing each other later on Sunday.
Tsitsipas was the last surprise winner of last year’s World Tour Finals after defeating Thiem
The Tokyo 1970 group features Novak Djokovic, Daniil Medvedev, Alexander Zverev and Diego Schwartzman, with matches in that group kicking off tomorrow.