After staging a few comebacks already at the 2023 Kitzbuhel Open, Dominic Thiem added another one booking the semi-final of the ATP 250 event.
As a former champion of the event, Dominic Thiem was expected to put forward a really strong performance, least of all because he's actually from Austria and has trained in Kitzbuhel multiple times.
His opponent had good memories of the event as well making the semi-final here in the past, but he didn't equal that this time around. Arthur Rinderknech started well, but he couldn't keep up the level as Thiem warmed up.
There is clearly something wrong with his warm-up techniques because, for the 2nd time in a row, Thiem lost the opening set comfortably. Even in the first match, which he won in straight sets, the Austrian was in a hole early.
He came back and won against Bagnis in two sets. Then he basically did a similar thing against Zhang, coming back from a set down to win that one. And now he did the same thing again; he lost the opening set but won the next two.
What happened in this one? Essentially another slow start. Thiem dropped his serve in the first game of the match and never saw a break point in the opening set. The altitude helped Rinderknech bomb serves and bombed his way to a 6-4 set.
The second set flipped the script completely as Thiem didn't face a single break point while breaking his opponent once to win the set 6-3. Just a much-improved level from the Austrian. The final set looked very familiar. Wasted break chances in the first game for Thiem but a break the next time he found himself returning.
From there a rather smooth sailing towards the finish line without a single break point allowed. Basically, the Austrian didn't allow a single break point since 2-4 in the opening set. The final score was 3-6 6-3 6-4.
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