Mana Games

[VernieBoi]

Yep, here we go again This time with Dominic Thiem.

People who read the other 2 diaries already know how do we play these careers, so I won't write it down again.
Other changes I made are that all challenger draws are for 48 people with 16 seeds (doubles 24, 8)


I decided to start in 2014 with Dominic, his first year where he got to top 50.
But we start off on 139th place.

As our main goal is to get to Australian Open main draw, we go directly to Australia to play in Onkaparinga's Challenger.

City of Onkaparinga (75k)
3rd seed

Round 1 Bye

Round 2 vs Luke Saville (#290) -> Both guys were pretty good on serve, first breakpoint came at 4/3 in the first set, Thiem haven't converted any of them, but got the break on the second try and won 6/4. Second set was pretty much the same story, again not used breakpoints at 4/3, but 40-0 lead at 5/4 on return and the second MP was used for the 6/4 6/4 win for Thiem.

Round 3 vs James Duckworth (14, #198) -> Duckworth was on deuce right in the 2nd game of the match, but first man with a break was Dominic as he didn't hesitate in the next game and just went for it for the 2/1 lead, other break at 4/1 and 6/2 win followed. Dominic continued in much better performance than in the first match and took the quick break right in the start of the second set, another came up at 5/3 and Dominic went for a easy 6/2 6/3 win to get to QF.

Quaterfinals vs Ricardo Siggia (#254) -> Quick 4/0 lead for Dominic, then came the middle part of the match, very even, Siggia was maybe slightly better, but no breakpoints for him meant 6/2 win for Dominic, Siggia's momentum ended at 2/2 in the second set and Dominic dominated again to win 6/2 6/2.

Semifinals vs Nick Kyrgios (15, #202) -> Yeah, Thiem held up to 2/2 in the first, but then Nick started to make far more winners than errors from his aggresive game, Thiem saved 4 breakpoints, but that was all, fifth was used and another break came in the end for 2/6 loss for Thiem. Kyrgios continued to dominate in the second set, he took 3/0 lead, had breakpoint on 4/1 and even a matchpoint and 5/2, still Thiem managedto hold these serves just to lose on Nick's own 2/6 3/6.

Results
33 points
R1 - bye
R2 - (3)Thiem d. Saville 6/4 6/4
R3 - (3)Thiem d. Duckworth(14) 6/2 6/3
QF - (3)Thiem d. Siggia 6/2 6/2
SF - (3)Thiem l. Kyrgios(15) 2/6 3/6

Ranking - 152 -> 144

I wanted to go to Canberra Open, another challenger here, but Dominic had to qualify for Australian Open, so next stop is it's qualification.

[VernieBoi]

Australian Open
Qualy Round 1 vs Guillaume Marx (#417) -> Even match from the beginning up to 2/2 in the first, then Dominic started to simply dominate and he won 7 games in a row to make it 6/2 3/0, next break came in the end for the 6/2 6/2 win.

Qualy Round 2 vs Silvio Moane (#408) -> Thiem wasn't really sure when it came to serving in this match, he lost more than 1/3 of points on his serve and even lost one game, yet still he managed to simply dominate on return, he broke Moine 5 times of 7 breakpoint chances and won 6/2 6/2 once again.

Qualy Round 3 vs Ryan Sweeting (28, #314) -> Sweeting was tough in the beginning, although he offered Dominic 2 breakpoints after a double-fault and Dominic converted them, in the next game Dominic was 0-40 down, but Sweeting made mistakes when he finally tried to attack and Dominic won 5 points a row to make it 4/2, Dominic served the set out and won 6/4. Dominic saved 2 breakpoints at 0/1, but he wasn't as successful at 1/2 and lost his serve to make it 1/3 and Sweeting was just too much in the second set for Dominic, he was simply better and won it 6/3. Thiem was on fire in the start of the third set as he went for a 3/0 lead, Sweeting then managed to get back to 3/2, but he lost his serve once again and Dominic won his own with a love game to make it 5/2. Sweeting saved 2 match points in the next game, but the third as Dominic Thiem qualifies to the main draw of Australian Open after a 6/4 3/6 6/2 win over Ryan Sweeting.

Round 1 vs Mischa Zverev (#180) -> Qualifier vs Qualifier in the first round here, but Thiem was the favourite here, and he proved it right from the start with a lead, both guys then held their serves, so Thiem won the first 6/2. Zverev was 2/0 and 5/4 up in the second set, but he didn't serve the set out and Zverev got back to make it to the tiebreak. TB was full of turnovers, first Thiem was 3-0 up, then Zverev 5-3, but in the end, Thiem won it 7-5. Thiem had to save 2 breakpoints at the start of the third set, he managed to save just the first one, so Zverev went to lead by break, and that one break was enough to win the set 6/4, Mischa went to the net like after almost every serve, and he also won most of the points there. Thiem was simply unbreakable in the fourth set, he lost just 3 points on his serve, and made 12!! aces, great third game full of passing shots did the trick for Dominic as he won 6/2 7/6(5) 4/6 6/3 and he advances to his first 2nd round in Grandslam.

Round 2 vs Mardy Fish (21, #21) -> Idk how Fish was so high in the start of the season, when irl he played just 6 tournaments in 2013, probably another misspell in the playersatp,ini thing, well, means we got as much lucky as we could with Dominic. Fish was close in the first two return games to get break, but he wasn't successful, Thiem took his opportunities and bageled Fish afterwards. While losing 0/6 0/3, Fish had 3 game points to finally win a game, but Thiem won 5 in a row to make it 5/0, yet finally Fish won a game after losing the first eleven to Thiem and he made it to 1/5. He even made it to deuce next game, but Thiem served the set out to win it 6/1. Third set was closest Fish got to win, Thiem was 2/0 up, but suddenly Fish broke back and then Thiem broke Fish again to make it 3/1, FIsh got better on the net, often finished the points there, Thiem didn't serve the match out and it all went to tiebreak, Fish was leading 2-0, but then he made double fault and Thiem got back just to win the tiebreak 7-4 for the 6/0 6/1 7/6(4) win to advance to the third round of Australian Open.

Round 3 vs Edouard Roger-Vasselin (#47) -> Toughest opponent till now, yet still playable for me. Thiem had BP right in the start of the match, but it was Roger-Vasselin that went first to the lead by break, when he took Thiem's second serve game. He was better than Thiem, again played so much on the net and Thiem had no answer for that. Thiem had again chances in the start of the second set, yet Roger-Vasselin broke Thiem again in his second game on serve, On 5/4 Vasselin made doublefault to give Thiem chance on 30-30, but Vasselin's service-volley game won the set for him again, 6/4 this time. He was successful 26 times from 33 tries at net until now. It was really annoying. Thiem had big problems in the first game, he was losing in rallies, but then he made ace or great first serve, he got out of few deuces to take the 1/0 lead. Then something unexpected happened, Thiem played some great points and went for a 2/0 lead, Thiem was at his greatest service form I think, and didn't have problems on any of his service games. At 5/2 he was even leading 30-0 on return, but Vasselin showed some great mentalily and made it to 3/5. Thiem was down 0-40 in the next game, now it was Thiem who showed amazing mentality and he made it to deuce, fourth breakpoint was up next, after big luck for Vasselin, but Thiem won the next 3 points and finished the set 6/3. But before Thiem realized it is fourth set he was already 0/3 and 0-30 down, I don't really know what happened, it just all came down so quickly, Thiem held his serve towards end of the set, he had one chance to break Vasselin when is was 30-0 up while losing 3/5, but he didn't use his chances and lost in 3rd round here in Australian Open to Edouard Roger-Vasselin 3/6 4/6 6/3 4/6.

Quick Results
Q1 - (4)Thiem d. Marx 6/2 6/2
Q2 - (4)Thiem d. Moine 6/2 6/2
Q3 - (4)Thiem d. Sweeting(28) 6/4 3/6 6/2
R1 - (Q)Thiem d. Zverev M.(Q) 6/2 7/6(5) 4/6 6/3
R2 - (Q)Thiem d. Fish(21) 6/0 6/1 7/6(4)
R3 - (Q)Thiem l. Roger-Vasselin 3/6 4/6 6/3 3/6

The loss really hurts, because the chance to advance was there, but third round is still big success, Thiem goes up to 114th place.

Surprisingly, Milos Raonic won Australian Open, when he defeated Federer in R4 (7/5 in fifth), Nadal in QF (3-0), Murray in SF (3-1) and Djokovic in Finale (3-1).

Next stop for Dominic will be ATP 250 in Buenos Aires, because, obviously, clay is Thiem's strongest suit, so I'll try how the results will go here.

[evypatton9]

So happy you chose Thiem. Good luck to both of you!

[VernieBoi]

So happy you chose Thiem. Good luck to both of you!

Thank you so much, next part will come out tommorow!

[VernieBoi]

Plans changed, instead of Buenos Aires, Dominic decided to stay in Australia, because there was still a challenger after Australian Open.

Neville Smith Forst Products (75k)
fifth seed
Round 1 -> bye

Round 2 vs Matteo Viola (#229) -> Thiem had to win first game from being 0-30 down, he did, and he also broke Viola in the next game to make it 2/0. Viola won his only game of the first set after being 0/5 down. Viola was losing it for himself, he had only four winners and 17 errors. His tactic to finish every rally after first hit was much more successful in the second set. He had 26 winners and also 26 errors, he made Thiem to go to tiebreak, Viola was 5-3 up, but Thiem turned it around for 6-5 lead, but he didn't use any of his 3 match points and lost the tiebreak 8-10. So it was time for Match tiebreak, Viola still played better and better, he had 2 Matchpoints at 9-7, first one was saved by Thiem after a backhand winner, the other was saved by Viola himself after he made his first and only doublefault of the match. It came to 10-10 and Thiem finally tried to do something from the rally and he made great backhand and then also forhand winner for the 6/1 6/7(8) 12-10 win. Much harder win than it looked after first set.

Round 3 vs Ivo Minar (#198) -> Pfffh, Thiem saved 2 BPs in the first game of the match, only to win Minar's serve next game, he then was more sure on his own serve and finished the set 6/3, Second set was even, it looked to me like Dominic could win it here, but he didn't, instead of it he lost the his serve at 3/4 and Minar served the set out to win it 6/3. Match tiebreak looked like it could be over really soon, It was 4-4, when Thiem scored 5 in the row to make it 9-5, Thiem started to make errors, Minar started to make winners and it was 9-9 in no time, 4 match points lost, 10-9, 11-10, 12-11, 13-12, 14-13, nine match points loss, it was really freaking frustrating, but on 15-14, Thiem finally served good and finished the match 16-14 in master tiebreak. I really need to up my game after I made it harder with the sweet spot scale thing, it's more realistic regarding errors, but also very very tough to play.

Quaterfinals vs Viktor Troicki (3, #105) -> Classic start from Thiem, quick break for 2/0, at 5/3 he turn game over from being 0-40 down and won the first set 6/3. Both held their first service games of the second set, and both lost the second one to make it 2/2. And Thiem made the same mistake as in every match, he started to play defensively and it cost him the set 3/6, same mistake every time. Same as last time, Dominic dominated the match tiebreak from the beginning, he lost just one serve and won most of the opponent's, he went for 9-3, and surprise surprisem he actually finished the match and won 10-3! That gives us second challenger semifinal from second try.

Semifinals vs Sam Groth (q, #348) -> I wasn't scared of anything alse than his serve and he exactly showed why I should be scared, From his first 2 games he scored 5 aces, 3 of those from second serve, but when it came to rally, Thiem was unstoppable, but Groth got in to it with time and when it was 6/6 he was leading 9-8 on return points, but tiebreak was unexpectadly easy for Dominic, Groth lost his serve every time, and Domi just once, so he managed to win the tiebreak 7-1. With this bad form Groth had to start second set on serve, Thiem had his first breakpoint, but Groth managed to get away this time, he was even on deuce next game on Domi's serve, but Dominic won it to make it to 1/1, Thiem had breakpoints in the next game too and he broke Groth for the first time in the match to go to the 2/1 lead. And Thiem was seriously concentrating on every his serve and lost 7 points on his serve in the second set and won it in the end 6/4 to reach the final.

Final vs Amer Delic (16, #178) -> Should have been win, it wasn't... This time Thiem didn't even go for a break in the start, but he lost his own and that one serve wasn't given back for Thiem and lost 3/6 in the first set. In the start of the second set he lost again, he got back from 0/2 to 2/2, but Delic made it back to 4/2 for him and served the match out really without trouble to get the title after 6/3 6/4 win..

Quick Results
R1 - bye
R2 - (5)Thiem d. Viola 6/1 6/7(8) 12-10
R3 - (5)Thiem d. Minar 6/3 3/6 16-14
QF - (5)Thiem d. Troicki(3) 6/3 3/6 10-3
SF - (5)Thiem d. Groth 7/6(1) 6/4
F - (5)Thiem l. Delic(16) 3/6 4/6

Tough final loss, Delic was better, made little to none mistakes and was just better than Thiem..

55 points and move to 110th posititon

Next stop is in Brazil, as we will try to qualify to Rio de Janeiro!!

[VernieBoi]

Rio de Janeiro (ATP 500)
Qualy Round 1 vs Nicolas Becerra (#318) -> Tied match from the beginning, no troubles on serve until 4/4 where Thiem took his chance and went on to end the first set on serve of his own. But he didn't finish it and he instead lost his serve and Becerra made it to 5/5, so the first set went to tiebreak. Thiem was suddenly better man in the tiebreak and won it 7-3.
Becerra started better in the second set, immedietly went for break and for 2/0 lead, Thiem was even 1/3 and 15-40 down on his serve, but he made it back and started to dominate since with 5 games in a row to win 7/6(3) 6/3.

Qualy Round 2 vs Yannik Reuter (#268) -> Much tougher than I expected.. Reuter was better in the baseline game, he was break up in the first set, but didn't serve the set out, so it went to tiebreak. Tied tiebreak, but Reuter won the deciding point at 5-5 and served set out this time to get it 7-5 in tiebreak. Second set was pretty much the same, Reuter again took the break lead, but Thiem fought back, he even saved matchpont at 5/6 30-40. In tiebreak, Thiem was the one to take comfortable lead, Thiem almost lost it, but he managed to end the set 7-5 in the second set tiebreak. Match tiebreak was next, Thiem was leading 5-2, but Reuter got back to 5-5. Thiem was first on matchpoints here, but he didn't use any of the 2 he had, Then Ruter had one at 10-9, Thiem at 11-10 and Reuter and 12-11. Neither was used until 13-12, sadly for Reuter as Thiem couldn't hold the ball in the game on the net to lose this match.

Q1 - (2)Thiem d. Becerra 7/6(3) 6/3
Q2 - (2)Thiem l. Reuter(8) 6/7(5) 7/6(5) 12-14

Sorry for the big delay, I have many things to take care about now, so there's not much time to play, but I'll try to do my best.

[VernieBoi]

After not really successful Rio de Janiero, we stayed in Brazil as we signed for another main tour tournament in Sao Paulo.

Sao Paulo (ATP 250)
Round 1 vs Grega Zemlja (#121) -> Lol, First set was just terrible, Grega dominated, gave Dominic no chance Thiem was bit more tied in the last few games, but he still lost 0/6 in 24 minutes
Dominic managed to up and even his game with Zemlja, which he proved by being the first to break at 3/3, Thiem got from 15-30 next game and served the set out to win 6/4!!
Match tiebreak was then one sided, Zemlja looked shocked by the second set and Thiem went quickly for 6-1 lead, Zemlja got to 4-7, by Thiem took both of his serves to make it 9-4 and he finished the match with an ace on second try to win 0/6 6/4 10-5.

Round 2 vs Ernests Gulbis (3, #23) -> First really great player we had to face, I think we all know how good 2014 Gulbis was. And he proved it from the start, Thiem did as much as he could, but he was still the first one to lose serve, even though he managed to save 2 previous break points. Thiem saved 4 BPs at 1/4 and won his first return point at 2/4, but Gulbis was just too strong and finished the first set 6/3. And Thiem looked like he gave up early on in the second set, in no time Gulbis made it to 4/0. since then Thiem had his biggest chance on return when he was leading 30-15, but he still lost the game and the match 3/6 2/6.

Quick Results
R1 - Thiem d. Zemlja 0/6 6/4 10-5
R2 - Thiem l. Gulbis(3) 3/6 2/6