Dominic Thiem will look for an easier second round match against Alexei Popyrin when the two of them go head to head at the 2019 Australian Open on Thursday.
Watch & bet on Dominic Thiem v Alexei Popyrin live with bet365 here* on Thursday, January 17. The Thiem v Popyrin match timings will be announced soon.
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Thiem Endures a Tough Start
Having never reached beyond the round four at the Australian Open, Thiem will look at his draw and tell himself this could well be a very good chance. A wild-card opponent in this match, followed by Lucas Pouille and Borna Coric in the next two matches shouldn’t be as difficult as some of the others might face en route to the last eight.
He did have his moments in his opening round encounter though against Benoit Paire. Up two sets to love, Thiem suddenly lost his mojo and allowed Paire to come back into the match, before completing the win in five sets. The match lasted three hours, 42 minutes.
What this means is that Thiem will go into his second round match having played a long match that finished at 2 am local time and that’s where his opponent Popyrin will hope he can take advantage of some of the fatigue.
Thiem had played just one ATP match in the lead-up to the Australian Open this year, losing his opener at the Doha Open to Pierre-Hugues Herbert.
Fighting Popyrin for the Future?
Ranked 153rd in the world, Popyrin could be a player to watch in the future in a country which has been starved of players with potential who have delivered. And with a win over Mischa Zverev in his opening round match, that hope might have been rekindled yet again for this Grand Slam hosts.
That victory came at the backend of back to back losses at Brisbane and Sydney, but not before he had run Martin Klizan very close – losing the third set tie-breaker in Sydney. He had earlier ended the previous year with a run of three wins including qualifiers to make round two at the Basel Open.
Thiem v Popyrin Head to Head
This will be the first time that Thiem and Popyrin play each other.
Thiem v Popyrin – Who Will Win?
This should be as easy as it gets for Thiem in terms of a second round opponent but the 19-year-old Popyrin has been pushing his opponents even in matches he hasn’t been able to win as mentioned above. We still expect a three-setter but a tough one at that.
You can watch & bet on Dominic Thiem v Alexei Popyrin live with bet365 here on Thursday, January 17.
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