Thiem rolls over Medvedev for Barcelona title

Dominic Thiem of Austria justified expectations after dethroning the defending champion by defeating Russia’s Daniil Medvedev 6/4; 6/0 in the finals.

In their second career meeting, the Austrian extended the winning record to 2-0 following his victory over Medvedev in the finals of 2018 St Petersburg Open, that ended with the close score of 6/3; 3/6; 7/6(2).

Medvedev held serve in the opening game and broke Thiem to lead 2-0. He extended the lead to 3-0. Thiem fought hard to register on scoreboard and then took his opponent’s serve in the fifth game.

Thiem took the sixth game to level 3-all. In the crucial seventh game, Medvedev had three game points at 40-0 but was brought to deuce. He saved the first break point but lost the game. It was a momentum shift, as Thiem won his next service game at love for a 5-3. Medvedev survived a break point but held to take the ninth game. From 15-all in the tenth game, Thiem rolled on to win the set 6-4.

In the second set, Thiem’s serve picked while Medvedev dropped and the Austrian most points following first delivery. In the first game of second set, Medvedev lost four straight points for the break while Thiem proceeded to win 10 straight points on his serve to lead 4-0. Medvedev again lost serve to concede the fifth game. Serving for the match Thiem raced to 40-15 and closed out the set 6-0. At the close of match, Thiem amassed 63 points while Medvedev tallied 36.

Daniil had powered his way to the final utilising his height (193cm) to rain down serves but his service failed him in the title match. The 23-year old Russian came into the finals with a 21/7 match record this year compared to Thiem’s 9/6 but the 25-year old Austrian has a career tally of 234/135.

The Colombian pair of Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah (seeded 3) defeated the second seeded team of British Jamie Murray and Brazilian Bruno Soares 6/4; 7/6(4) to win the doubles title.