Dominic Thiem produced a ruthless peformance to win the St. Petersburg Open for the first time in his career.
The Austrian outplayed Martin Klizan as he raced to a comfortable 6-3 6-1 victory in little over an hour.
By becoming the St. Petersburg Open champion, Thiem registers his eleventh career title and first on indoor hard courts.
Despite a successful week, the 25-year-old will climb just one spot in the ATP Rankings, to seventh; he also rises one spot to seventh on the ATP Race to London.
The result was never a foregone conclusion by any means – Martin Klizan had never lost one of his six finals prior to today’s match.
In fact, the St. Petersburg Open was where the Slovakian claimed his maiden ATP title back in 2012.
Klizan never found his top level and Thiem took full advantage of this, breaking his opponent in the seventh game.
The Austrian won 76% of points behind his serve, compared to just 59% from Klizan, which greatly helped Thiem take the first set 6-3.
The second set was more of the same: big hitting tennis from the 25-year-old, and extremely inconsistent play from the Slovakian.
There seemed to be life in Klizan when he created his first two break opportunities of the contest in what turned out to be the final game of the match.
Thiem snuffed out these chances with some crafty play as he successfully served out the match in just sixty-seven minutes.
The French Open finalist was delighted to break another milestone in his career, “It means a lot to me, to win a first indoor title is really amazing.”
The Austrian powerhouse loved the St. Petersburg Open, “It is one of my favourite ATP 250 tournaments,” and he may be back soon.
“I couldn’t find a better place to win my first indoor title.”
Dominic Thiem takes an unbelievable amount of criticism when it comes to his scheduling and it seems that the 25-year-old is finally starting to take notice.
The world No. 7 takes a two-week rest period as he prepares for the Shanghai Rolex Masters.
After a profitable week in St. Petersburg, Dominic Thiem will look to have a successful backend of the season – where he will attempt to qualify for the ATP Finals for the third successive year.
Main Photo from Getty
