Dominic Thiem made his first appearance after separating from coach Nicolas Massu. In the first round of the Masters 1000 tournament in Monte Carlo on Easter Monday, the Lower Austrian defeated Frenchman Richard Gasquet after a good performance with 6:1, 6:4. Thiem, who started in the principality with a wildcard in the main competition, now meets the number six seeded Dane Holger Rune in the second round.
Thiem will be coached for the first time in Monaco by German-Iranian Benjamin Ebrahimzadeh, and physio Matthias Kapl is also new. The duo is practically completing the probationary period as members of the supervisory staff of the former US Open winner. Thiem announced the separation from Chilean Massu after four years of cooperation last Saturday.
Against the 36-year-old Gasquet, Thiem looked back on two wins and two defeats – each on hard court. The French number 42 in the world rankings has not been in top form in recent weeks and has struggled from the first service game. Thiem finally used his eighth break chance to make it 2-0, the second game alone lasted 18 minutes, in which the 29-year-old was able to underline his upward trend. After that it went faster.
Thiem, who was seven years younger, was convincing, he put his opponent under pressure and scored good points over the forehand. Gasquet only managed to win a serve when the score was 0:5. After 45 minutes, Thiem wrote about winning the first set.
In the second round, Gasquet started to fight back more vehemently. Thiem still got the early break to make it 2-1 and then remained sovereign. He didn’t have to fend off a breakball in the entire match, with 19 winners he hit almost twice as many as Gasquet (10) and only made seven unforced errors. On his own serve, Thiem worked three match points, and he used the second with his sixth ace of the game.
