Thiem battles on as seeds fall by the wayside

Sevendown, one more to go! Ordinarily, that’s not how tennis reports aresupposed to begin but considering the rather unusual circumstances atthe Qatar ExxonMobil Open, one just also cannot totally wish thatthought away.As of yesterday, the third day of the 26th edition ofthe prestigious tournament, as many as seven of the eight seeds hadfallen by the wayside, four ousted in the first round itself and threefollowing them in the second.Blame it on the imperfections of theseedings system or the early-season blues, the fact remains that thenon-appearance of Novak Djokovic, Stan Wawrinka and Jo-Wilfried Tsongathrough injuries and the premature ouster of many of favoured playersamong the confirmed lot have robbed the event of some star power.Fifth-seededRichard Gasquet, seventh-seeded Fernando Verdasco and eighth-seededFeliciano Lopez bowed out in the second round yesterday, falling toGreek qualifier Stefanos Tsitsipas, Russian Andrey Rublev and Bosnianwildcard Mirza Basic, respectively.The results mean that the tournament will have a new champion this year, with the exit of 2013 champion Gasquet.Earlier, Pablo Carreno Busta, Tomas Berdych, Albert Ramos-Vinolas and Filip Krajinovic had fallen at the first hurdle. Thankfully,though, Dominic Thiem, the top seed, has survived, albeit not beforeblowing hot and cold against unseeded Slovenian Aljaz Bedene. The24-year-old Austrian played a patchy match. One moment he was sublime,the very next he was atrocious. In fact, the main reason why he gotthrough to the quarter-finals was that he had a superior serve and alsobecause of Bedene’s own lack of self-belief.Thiem won 7-5, 6-4 whenlogically he should have wrapped up the encounter with much more ease.But then when you convert only three of your 13 break points such thingsare bound to happen.Thiem was up 5-4 and held two set points in the10th game but he squandered the advantage allowing Bedene to drawlevel. That left the match in a tricky situation but the Austrian wasquick to recoup, winning his next service game and then breaking Bedeneto take the set in 51 minutes.Thiem’s lack of consistency was againon show in the second set. He had a golden chance to break Bedene in thesecond game itself but couldn’t capitalise, thanks to a couple ofwayward shots. It was the same story in the sixth game which Bedenemanaged to save with great difficulty.Games went with serve, untilthe Austrian, leading 5-4, broke Bedene in the 10th game to securevictory after a lacklustre match.Thiem said he had no complaints,having won the match in two sets, even saying his two matches so farwere a perfect start for him in the new season.“I’m pleased today.I’m through in straight sets. It was a tough match, but I expected itand had two tough matches which I both won in straight sets. So I thinkthat’s a perfect start to the new year,” said the Austrian who has wonsix titles so far.“If you have to fight a lot, if you have to suffera bit, I think it’s very good like this. You get a lot of toughsituations already in the first matches, and that’s why I’m happy withthe start.”Thiem, who will play the quarter-finals against Tsitsipas, added that improving his net play was a priority for him.“Ipractise volleys a lot, but it’s not that easy to come in nowadays. Allthe players are very fast. They play really good passing shots. So Iimprove my volley, but still I have to watch out when I come in. Andmaybe I come in a little bit more often, but I’m not going to come inevery short play on the volley.”Thiem played in Qatar for the firsttime as a qualifier in 2014, and having made the transition to top seedat this year’s event, was pretty pleased with himself.“When I playedhere in 2014, I think I was 140 in the world. So it was amazing for meto qualify. I was the happiest guy on the planet because I qualified andit was the start of my career basically. Everything started here.“Andnow, of course, I’m experienced. I know how the Tour works. I’veprobably played 350 matches since then. And it was nice back then. I wasinexperienced. I was really young and fearless. And a lot of thingschange. But of course, it’s better to be up in the ranking and top seedthen have to pay the qualies.”Earlier in the day, Rublev, 20, oustedSpain’s seventh-seeded  Verdasco in three sets, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, andwildcard world number 138 Mirza Basic shocked eighth seed Lopez 6-4, 7-6(2).“Of course I’m really happy. I’m happy to take my revengebecause I lost against Fernando (2017 Paris Masters) a few months ago.Also a tough match. Today I won a tough match, so I’m really happy. AndI’m really happy to be in the quarter-final, and I will try to do mybest tomorrow,” added the rising Russian, whose father was aprofessional boxer and mother a tennis coach.Croatian Borna Coric,meanwhile, followed up his impressive upset victory over second seedCarreno Busta with a 6-1, 6-3 romp over Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili.It was the world number 48 Coric’s first win over the Georgian in threemeetings, having previously lost to him in Lyon and Cincinnati lastyear. Coric will take on Rublev in the quarter-finals.Gael Monfilsof France, who was given a wildcard, also advanced to the quarters,beating German Jan-Lennard Struff 6-3, 1-6, 6-3, who had shockedthird-seeded veteran Tomas Berdych in the first round.In the last singles match of the day, Tsitsipas went past veteran Frenchman Gasquet 6-3, 6-4 in straight sets.