Dominic Thiem, third seed at Roland Garros, showed this Friday that he is already in a position to discuss Rafa Nadal's dominance again on land with an undeniable triumph against a rival who trains at the Balearic academy, Casper Ruud. The Austrian disarmed the tennis player with the most victory on clay in 2020 (17) and He beat him very comfortably, especially from the second set (6-4, 6-3 and 6-1 in 2h: 15).
Thiem placed 31 winners and served with great solvency (79% success in first serves and 87% of points won with them). To the rest, Dom added six breaks and only conceded one at the beginning of the first set, in the moments of greatest success of a rival that was diluted with the passing of the minutes before the powerful and precise game of Thiem, who will face the French Hugo Gastón, who gave the surprise of the day by eliminating Stan Wawrinka, winner of the tournament in 2015, 2-6, 6-3 , 6-3, 4-6 and 6-0. Gaston is the lowest ranked player (239th) to reach the fourth round in Paris since another Gallic guest, Arnaud di Pasquale, in 2002. Wawrinka had never lost to such a poorly ranked player.
Alexander Zverev did not get tangled up this time with Marco Cecchinato, as he had done in the second round against Pierre-Hugues Herbert, whom he won in five sets. This time three (6-1, 7-5 and 6-3 were enough) to get into the round of 16 for the third time (he was a quarterfinalist in 2018 and 2019). The German played a serious game, with few unforced errors (22) and good serve percentages. He will face Italian Jannik Sinner on Sunday.
Results and schedule.