Dominic Thiem began his final ATP event of the year with a solid win over a native player Matteo Martineau, who is a lucky loser at the 2023 Moselle Open in Metz.
With his final tournament of the season, the Austrian wanted to show his qualities, and he did. Thiem played a pretty solid match in the somewhat slow indoor conditions in Metz.
He barely had any issues on his serve, dominating play without any problems. On return, Thiem correctly predicted that his opponent really couldn't do much harm to him because he lacked weapons.
Martineau tried some tricks and held on pretty well for a while in the opening set as Thiem was searching his forehand. Eventually, the Austrian got a chance to break because Martineau completely gave away his serve with three double faults at 4-4.
That was enough for the 5-4 lead and then easy hold 6-4. The second set wasn't much more impressive from the native French player, who clearly struggled to hurt the former US Open champion.
He immediately dropped his serve at the start of the second set, giving Thiem all the momentum he needed, and he cruised from there. It was a solid win for Thiem, beating a player who is ranked just inside of the world's Top 300.
The final score was 6-4 6-2 as the Austrian looks to finish the season on a high note after some solid showings in recent weeks. The hope is that that momentum transitions onto next year, and he returns to the Top 20 or something similar because it's been a long time since he was ranked somewhere around that.
Wins like this indicate that he still has good tennis in him, but he also faced a player that he should beat with his real level, so we'll see in the coming days.
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