Roger Federer’s loss to Dominic Thiem in the Italian Open third round means Andy Murray will return to number two in the world.
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The Swiss maestro withdrew from Madrid last week with a troublesome back and has been beset by injury problems this season, including undergoing knee surgery.
Thiem went-on to break Federer’s serve midway through the 2nd, before wrapping up the match 7-6, 6-4, to earn his 32nd victory of the season.
Unless his health improves, Federer, a 17-time Grand Slam champion, said he would skip the year’s second major. I’m not going to go into specifics, because I’m not in the mood.
“That was the mind-set going in, so to win in straights is actually a really big surprise to me”.
Dominic Thiem of Austria serves the ball to Roger Federer of Switzerland during their match at the Italian Open tennis tournament, in Rome, Thursday, May 12, 2016.
The Scot was in complete control at 3-2 in the second with three break points before his concentration wandered, and he suddenly found himself a point away from a 5-3 deficit.
Also, Timea Bacsinszky beat eighth-seeded Carla Suarez-Navarro 5-7, 7-5, 6-2; Irina-Camelia Begu defeated Daria Kasatkins 6-1, 6-4; Misaki Doi of Japan eliminated Johanna Konta of Britain 4-6, 7-5, 6-2; and Madison Keys made the last eight overcoming Timea Babos 7-6 (2), 6-3. But of course I was fighting and the third set was really close.
“I feel like now obviously time starts ticking more towards Paris”, Federer said after his 78-minute defeat. “That’s the hope I have and then we’ll see the rest, how it’s going to come”.
“So it was a calculated risk if you like, so I’m super pleased that I was able to play let alone to win so it was a big day and [a] huge step in the right direction”.
“Passing on their experiences is something I’ve benefited from over the last few years with my last few coaches”.
Seven-time Rome champion Rafael Nadal ground past Nick Kyrgios 6-7 (3) 6-2 6-4, and will next face Novak Djokovic or Thomaz Bellucci, who played late.
Williams will face ninth-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova in the quarterfinals.
Another change of Swiss tactics saw Federer receive serve two metres behind the baseline, and it nearly worked, too: He earned two break points for a 6-5 lead, but Thiem handled that ploy-he is a remarkably solid player on both wings at the baseline-and won four straight points to hold.
The world number four took the first set on a tie-break but was broken three times as Monaco claimed the second. “I’m happy I was able to play and still feel about the same”. Now the last couple of weeks it’s been more hard… Thiem stepped in to win it 7-2 which was rather important for him considering the fact that Roger pushed him to the limits without playing his best tennis.
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Murray, who next plays France’s Jeremy Chardy, was pleased with his performance given the change in conditions from Madrid, where he lost to Djokovic in the final on a cold and damp evening.
