Austrian tennis player Dominic Thiem has reached his first ATP semi-finals of the season after beating Diego Schwartzman of Argentina in the Rio Open quarter-finals on Friday. The Austrian tennis player needed two sets and an hour and 15 minutes of play to take down the Argentinean 6-2 6-3. Second-seeded Thiem is so far living up to expectations and is bidding to win the title in Rio de Janeiro.
The key in the match was Thiem's ability to came up big when needed most - he converted 6 out of 6 of his break chances, and saved 8 out of 10 of Schwartman's break point opportunities.
It was almost impossible for world number 51 Schwartzman to beat Thiem in those circumstances. Thiem now has a 2-0 edge over Schwartzman in the head-to-head record.
Albert Ramos-Vinolas quietly continues his quest in Rio
Fifth-seeded Albert Ramos-Vinolas will feature in the Rio Open semi-finals after trashing Nicolas Kicker in the last-eight stage 6-2 6-3. The Spanish tennis player had no problems against the unseeded Argentinean on his way to clinching his first semi-finals spot of the season. An hour and 14 minutes of play was seen on Friday in the match between Ramos-Vinolas and Nicolas Kicker.
Ramos-Vinolas was dominant on his first serve points, winning 27 of 31 points played after he hit the first serve.
He converted 3 out of 5 of his break point chances, without getting broken in the match - as he did save Kicker's two break point opportunities. It was a good day in the office for the clay-court specialist from Spain - who wasn't the top favorite to win it all in Rio - but is fighting to do exactly that.
First semi-finals clash of the Rio Open known
Dominic Thiem and Albert Ramos-Vinolas, the winners of the first two quarter-finals matches of the day in Rio, will be meeting on Saturday. The two have met once so far in their careers, with Ramos-Vinolas prevailing over the world number eight. Ahead of the match, Thiem is not taking his Rio semi-finals opponent for granted, as he said of the Spaniard, according to Rio Open Twitter, ''It's going to be a very close match, he's having the best time of his career.''
