Former world No 3 Dominic Thiem has been awarded a qualifying wildcard into the Paris Masters.
Dominic Thiem, two times Roland Garros finalist, received a… qualifying wild card for Paris Bercy. It’s not like he isn’t playing well recently 🤷🏻♂️ https://t.co/I9tdPm2pD2 — José Morgado (@josemorgado) October 26, 2022
Thiem, who is now ranked at No 113 in the world, didn’t come close to making the main draw cut for the Paris Masters.
Even though Thiem has been handed a qualifying wildcard, apparently there is a chance he will not even try to play in Paris.
Thiem will shut down his season in Vienna if he reaches his top 100 goal (needs one more win).
But curious to see if he will in fact play Qualies in Bercy or not.
— José Morgado (@josemorgado) October 26, 2022
Thiem, 29, has played at the Paris Masters six times over the course of his career. In 2014, Thiem debuted at the final Masters tournament of the year. Back then, Thiem defeated Alexandr Dolgopolov in his Paris opener before losing to Stan Wawrinka in the second round.
Thiem’s best result at Bercy came in 2018, when he made the semifinal before falling short to eventual champion Karen Khachanov.
Thiem playing in his home country this week
This week, Thiem is competing in front of his home fans at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna.
On Tuesday, Thiem survived a thriller first round match as he saved two match points to beat Tommy Paul 2-6 7-6 (2) 7-6 (6). Thiem got off to a very slow start to the match as Paul claimed back-to-back breaks to open a 4-0 lead.
Up by a double break, Paul routinely held on to his serve the rest of the set to win the opener. In the second set, there were break point opportunities on both sides but neither player managed to convert. Thiem saved three break points in the second set, but he also missed out on three break points in the second set as the set had to be resolved in a tie-break.
In the tie-break, Thiem won five consecutive points to open a 6-1 lead before converting his second set point to send the match into a decider. In the third set, Paul broke Thiem in the second game and had a 5-2 lead after the opening seven games of the decider.
Down by a break, Thiem refused and managed to send the third set into another tie-break. There, Thiem saved two consecutive match points before realizing his first match point to complete a big comeback win.
