Estoril Open 2023: Thiem vs Shelton Highlights: Former Grand Slam Champion Dominic Thiem produced his best performance of the season on Thursday at the Estoril Open where he breezed past 20-year old American Ben Shelton 6-2, 6-2 to reach his first quarter-final of the season. The Austrian won his opening round match against fellow countryman Sebastian Ofner and has now followed it up with this commanding victory. This is his first consecutive tour-level victories since reaching the Antwerp semifinals in October. Up next for him is Quentin Halys, if Thiem wins, he will move up eight spots to No. 103 in the rankings. Follow Estoril Open 2023 LIVE updates on InsideSport.IN
BACK-TO-BACK WINS IN ESTORIL! 🌬️✋🔥
Dominic Thiem eases past Ben Shelton and moves to the quarter-finals.
6-2 6-2 in one hour. pic.twitter.com/lP8xS1SrUz
— Relevant Tennis (@RelevantTennis) April 6, 2023
The victory on Thursday improved Thiem’s record to 3-8 for the year, which he will hope will serve as the starting point for better performance. The Austrian has always thrived on clay, reaching the Roland Garros final in 2018 and 2019. On the surface, he has triumphed in 10 of his 17 tour-level victories.
Estoril Open LIVE: Casper Ruud eyes maiden semifinal spot in 2023, faces Sebastian Baez in quarterfinals of Estoril Open 2023 – Follow LIVE updates
Thiem on his performance and opponent
“The higher the ball bounces the better for me. Today was great with the warm weather. Not windy. The courts are pretty fast and dry and take the spin very well. It suites my game pretty good and I am excited to play the quarter-finals tomorrow,” ATP.com quoted Thiem as saying in his on-court interview following his 63-minute win.
“I am playing better and better. Just the results in the first part of the season were not there. This part of the season I love it. The European clay-court season,” he added.
“He was coming up so far last year and this year with great results. It was only his second match on a clay court. I had a lot of respect going into the match, the way he serves and his athletic abilities. The balls are coming really fast, so I was trying to use my clay court experience today and it was very good,” Thiem said when asked about Shelton.
Later on Thursday, Spain’s Bernabe Zapata Miralles earned a comeback victory against second seed Hubert Hurkacz, 6-7(7), 6-4, 6-2. By beating the World No. 12, Zapata Miralles scored his biggest career win by measure of the ATP Rankings and picked up his second Top 20 victory after beating Taylor Fritz last year at Roland Garros.
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