Vienna Open 2020: Will Dominic Thiem defend his title?

Dominic Thiem was crowned the Erste Bank Open champion in 2019 after taking down Diego Schwartzman in the final, but will he get that same result this year?

In 2019, Dominic Thiem produced an awesome level of tennis to make his way through a tough draw at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna, where he overcame Diego Schwartzman in the final to claim the title. Back then, with the absence of the top 3, Thiem was entered as the no.1 seed and certainly lived up to that status throughout the tournament.

This year may be a little different for the 2020 US Open champion, as Dominic Thiem is placed as the no.2 seed this time around, as world no.1 Novak Djokovic would naturally be claiming that top seed spot. The appearance of Djokovic in Vienna is perhaps the largest obstacle now in Thiem’s way, as should both players continue to live up to their respective seeds, they are bound to meet on the court sooner or later.

Novak Djokovic, who has had an epic run at the French Open just a few weeks ago, is no doubt the favorite to win this year’s Erste Bank Open, particularly with the absence of Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. The 17 time Grand Slam champion is set to have a strong run in Vienna after producing top-tier tennis at the Roland Garros prior to his encounter with the King of Clay himself.

The Vienna Open has proceeded mostly as expected thus far, with Novak Djokovic and Dominic Thiem cruising past their first-round opponents in straight sets. Their second-round matches are expected to finish in a similar manner, as both players will be going up against another round of unseeded opponents.

Other threats to defending champion Dominic Thiem’s Vienna success include the likes of Stefanos Tsitsipas and Daniil Medvedev, who are seeded as no. 3 and no. 4 respectively. Both these players, who were absent in last year’s Erste Bank Open, are expected to shake up the competition, particularly 3rd seed Tsitsipas, who most recently came close to defeating Novak Djokovic at the Roland Garros semi-finals just a couple of weeks back.

To make matters worse for Thiem, there is still the possibility of rising talents who can make their mark at any given moment, one such example being Cristian Garin, who took down 3 time Grand Slam champion Stan Wawrinka in one of the biggest upsets of the tournament so far. Other notable upsets include Jurij Rodionov’s win over Denis Shapovalov and Pablo Carreño Busta’s win over Gaël Monfils, both cases involving an unseeded player triumphing over a seeded player.

"“It’s always special to start as a defending champion, but this year is unreal, the whole draw,” Thiem stated to the ATP. “It was strong and then Novak arrived and it got unreal. Probably the best 500 tournament ever. Defending the title is not mission impossible, but almost.”"

Needless to say, the evidence is clear, this year’s Erste Bank Open is far more competitive than that of its 2019 predecessor, and this means Dominic Thiem will most certainly have a tough road ahead to defend his title. There is no doubt that Thiem is feeling the pressure to defend the title in his home country, with the entry of 5 other top 10 players led by Novak Djokovic, the Austrian will need to be on his toes to weather the storm to come.