2 things that stood out in Hamad Medjedovic's 2R win over Dominic Thiem at Swiss Open
Hamad Medjedovic of Serbia beat Dominic Thiem of Austria 7-5, 2-6, 6-3 in the second round of the Swiss Open in Gstaad on Wednesday, July 19. The match lasted for well over two hours, as the 19-year-old Serb reached his first-ever quarter-final in an ATP tournament. He will play Yannick Hanfmann of Germany on Friday.
Thiem showed flashes of brilliance, but his efforts went in vain in the end. His underwhelming run thus continued, as he is still searching for the old touch that made him the US Open champion in 2020.
He is moving well on the court and the signs of the wrist injury that troubled him for long, are no longer there. However, things are not quite perfect for him, as was quite evident in his loss against Medjedovic on Wednesday.
On that note, let us take a look at two things that stood out in the match.
#1. Dominic Thiem played drop shots off his backhand extensively
Dominic Thiem played drop shots off his backhand extensively throughout the match. He kept using it to good effect and executed it very well. However, Hamad Medjedovic had the more powerful serve and forehand, which helped him dominate a lot of rallies.
Medjedovic broke Thiem once in the first set before serving it out.
The Austrian bounced back to produce a near-perfect display in the second set. Aside from winning points with the help of drop shots, he hit a few wonderful passing shots to leave the Serb stunned. He broke Medjedovic twice to race through the set and draw level. At that point, Thiem seemed to have the momentum.
#2. Hamad Medjedovic toyed with Dominic Thiem's second serve
For all his deft touches, Dominic Thiem fared very poorly with his second serve in the match, as Hamad Medjedovic kept putting it under pressure. The 29-year-old Austrian made his opponent's job easier still by committing a few unforced errors in the third set while trying to overpress with his forehand.
Medjedovic broke him in the third set to race to a 5-1 lead, but Thiem broke back to reduce the deficit to 3-5. The Serb, though, served out the match quite easily.
Thiem won an impressive 86% of the points on his first serve but was able to win only 26% on his second. In comparison, Medjedovic won a much more respectable 63% of the points on his second serve.
The Serb looks in reasonably good form and will fancy his chances of reaching the last four. Medjedovic will play his quarterfinal match on Friday (July 21) against Yannick Hanfmann.