UPSET! Home-Favorite Lorenzo Sonego Trounces Dominic Thiem in 3hours and 25 Minutes at Italian Open 2021 Pre-Quarterfinals

World number four Austrian player Dominic Thiem, who made a comeback after a brief hiatus from tennis had reached the semi-finals of the Mutua Madrid Open, where he lost to the eventual champion Alexander Zverev in straight sets.

Even though he lost the match, there were positive to take for the Austrian as he made the semi-finals in the first tournament he participated post-sabbatical.

At the ongoing Italian Open, Thiem defeated Marton Fucsovics in three sets and faced the home town hero Lorenzo Sonego in the third round. It was an engaging matchup with the crowd supporting Sonego right till the end of the second set before the play got temporarily suspended.

Dominic Thiem battled hard before bowing out to Lorenzo Sonego

In a tightly contested encounter, the young Italian out-classed Dominic Thiem 6-4,6-7,7-6 in 3hours and 25 minutes to reach the quarter-finals.

Sonego looked confident right from the start as he kept pushing Thiem from corner to corner and using the drop shot to good affect. Even though Thiem was not in his best form yet, he managed to stay in the set and used all his big-match experience.

But, the Austrian fell short as Sonego clinched the first set 6-4.

By the start of the second set, Thiem slowly began to find his rhythm into the match but the Italian was winning most of the baseline exchanges and didn’t allow the Austrian to dominate the course of the match.

After saving multiple set-points in the second set, the young Italian took the match to a tie-breaker but lost his way in the middle as Thiem hit a couple of backhand winners to close out the tie-breaker and won the set , 7-6.

Just after the end of the tie-breaker, the play got temporarily suspended due to the curfew imposed in Rome. The fans who were cheering for Lorenzo Sonego were sent home. As the play resumed, both the players continued from where they left off in the previous two sets. It was a high-quality third set where each player had their moments.

The outcome of the third set and the match was decided by a tie-breaker where it was Thiem who made couple of unforced errors in the beginning and gave a rightful advantage to the Italian. By the time Thiem got back into the breaker, Sonego already had a match point as he sealed the game with a wider first-serve which became impossible to play for Thiem.

This victory is one of the best in the young career of Lorenzo Sonego, and the fact that it came on his home soil makes it even more special.

Lorenzo Sonego will now face Andrey Rublev in the quarter-finals of the Italian  Open tomorrow.

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