Pablo Andujar defeats Dominic Thiem in shocking first-round upset
In a shocking upset to many, four seed and two-time French Open finalist Dominic Thiem fell in the first round at the French Open, losing to Pablo Andujar in a five set thriller 6-4, 7-5, 3-6, 4-6, 4-6.
Dominic Thiem started off strong at the beginning of the match, dominating the points on his first serve. He was also great on the return, creating seven break point chances in the set, and getting the lone break to take the set 6-4.
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The second set was much closer, but Thiem continued to be better with the first serve than Andujar was. Both struggled on the second serve, leading to five breaks of serve in the set, but Thiem would get the last one to take the second set 7-5.
From then on, it was all Pablo Andujar. After having a lower winning percentage on his first serve in the first two sets, Andujar greatly improved and had a higher percentage than Thiem in the next two sets. He also led in second serve points won percentage in the final three sets, according to Infosys Match Centre.
In total, Andujar was able to break Thiem seven times on just 17 chances, giving him a 41% break point conversion rate. On the other hand, Thiem only broke Andujar’s serve 32% of the time, breaking him six times on 19 chances.
Thiem had a great chance to escape with the win in the fifth set, as after both exchanged breaks to start the set, Thiem found himself with a break point up 2-1. Had he won that point, Thiem would have been up 3-1 and this match could have looked much different. In the end, Andujar was able to fight off the break point, hold serve, and then break Thiem’s serve the next game to go up 3-2. Both players continued to hold serve as Andujar would eventually close out the match, taking the fifth set 6-4.
Next. Kerber falls to qualifier while Osaka advances to second round. dark
This is a major upset that few expected, especially after Thiem was cruising through the first two sets. This has to feel great for Andujar, as he now has two huge wins in 2021, first defeating Federer in Geneva a couple weeks back, and now beating a two-time French Open finalist at Roland Garros. Next up for Andujar will be the winner of Monday’s match between Radu Albot and Federico Delbonis.