Cecchinato beats Thiem, the revenge of Roland Garros 2018

Marco Cecchinato takes the first step towards a long-awaited relaunch. The Palermitan tennis player overtakes Dominic Thiem in the first round at the 250 in Geneva and interrupts the losing streak in 2022 which instead continues mercilessly for the Austrian, still lagging behind in condition. It ends 6-3 6-4 in Switzerland, with Ceck good at exploiting the opponent’s empty passes and defending himself from assaults.

Remembering Paris

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A small revenge of the noblest precedent four years ago, the only one, when Thiem succeeded where even Djokovic had failed: to eliminate Cecchinato at Roland Garros, in the semifinal. The story of the two tennis players, after four years, is very different. Both are not in the top 100 of the ATP rankings and were still winless in a main draw this year.

The match

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The Palermitan opens the match on the right foot by keeping the service at zero, but on the next serving turn he must already save two break points. The first set turns to the sixth game, when Cecchinato breaks Thiem’s ​​serve at the second chance granted by the opponent. The Italian then did well to confirm the advantage by climbing 5-2 and winning the set two games later, at 6-3. The quality rises and the show benefits. Cecchinato does not convert a break point in the third game and is even forced to save five on his own serve in the following round, thanks to a series of excellent firsts. Then the pattern varies a bit, calling the Austrian more often at the net, but Thiem gives shots from former number 3 of the circuit with two eye-rubbing tweeters. However, they are not enough to remove Ceck’s service and the backlash on the opponent is evident when in the seventh game he manages to find the decisive break. The Austrian does not raise his head, for Marco the final is all downhill: in the second round of the tournament he will meet the Pole Majchrzak who in turn overtook Bublik.