BNP Paribas Masters, Paris

[CR25] Alexandr Dolgopolov (UKR), seemingly in a hurry to get off the court, was distracted the entire match. He played with the same impatience and lack of focus, rushing his serves and groundstrokes and making too many errors to have had a realistic chance of winning.

[CR37] Dominic Thiem (AUT) won the first set simply by getting the ball in play and really did not have to work that hard. The second set was more engaging as Dolgopolov showed some interest in playing tennis and briefly focused on the match. He won the set because Thiem played tentatively, pushing the ball instead of decisively hitting it.

Unfortunately, Dolgopolov’s short attention span disappeared again in the third set, making it very easy for Thiem to win the match 6-2, 4-6, 6-0. It was a strange match, as Dolgopolov’s erratic performance not only made it very difficult for Thiem to get any consistent rhythm on his groundstrokes but his lack of interest seemed to have also affected Thiem’s level of concentration in the second set.