Former Kitzbuhel Open champion Dominic Thiem is through to the second round with a win over Argentinian Facundo Bagnis.
Dominic Thiem didn't start off his first-round match at the ATP 250 event well, but he turned it around after a brief suspension allowed him to recalibrate. It's been quite a year for the Austrian, and not in a good way. He has a negative score this year, with 15 wins and 23 losses before this match.
It hasn't been that great since Wimbledon with the Wimbledon match against Tsitsipas arguably his best match in a while. Gstaad was very disappointing, Umag as well, and Kitzbuhel was on its way to being a catastrophe.
Losing in the first match as a former champion of this event would have been terrible, but he pulled through somehow. Bagnis was on top early with a 4-1 lead but the match was briefly suspended at 4-2 for the Argentinian.
Upon return, Thiem played much better showing signs of composure that weren't there before. He broke back and ultimately won the opening set in the tiebreak 7-3. It was a very strong fightback by Thiem, who desperately needs a few wins.
Thiem started the second set with an early break going up 3-0, and it seemed like the match was over, however, it wasn't. Struggling to really finish things off, Thiem allowed himself to get broken by Bagnis, who started to look much more confident after breaking back.
We had a match on our hands and we saw a 2nd set tiebreak. Bagnis was up big early in the tiebreak leading 4-2 but Thiem battled back to 4-4 but Bagnis again jumped ahead with a 6-4 lead. Despite holding two sets points, Thiem battled back to make it 6-6. Eventually the Austrian booked the victory with an 8-6 second set finish. Final score 7-6(3) 7-6(6).
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