Dominic Thiem produced his best performance of the season on Thursday at the Estoril Open, where he moved past American Ben Shelton 6-2, 6-2 to reach his first quarter-final of the season.
The Austrian won with confidence in the opening round against fellow countryman Sebastian Ofner and followed it up with a commanding performance against Shelton. He defeated the American by smashing the ball off both wings, recording his first consecutive tour-level victories since reaching the Antwerp semifinals in October.
When he faces either Quentin Halys or fourth-seeded Roberto Bautista Agut in the round of eight, the former World No. 3 will look to extend his winning streak. If he makes it to the semifinals at Estoril, Thiem will move up eight spots to No. 103 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings and re-enter the Top 100.
The victory on Thursday improved Thiem’s record to 3-8 for the year, which he will hope will serve as the starting point for better performances. The Austrian has always thrived on clay, reaching the Roland Garros final in 2018 and 2019. On the surface, he has triumphed in 10 of his 17 tour-level victories.
“The higher the ball bounces, the better for me. Today was great with the warm weather. Not windy. The courts are pretty fast and dry, and they take the spin very well. It suits my game pretty well, and I am excited to play the quarter-finals tomorrow,” ATP.com quoted Thiem as saying in his on-court interview following his 63-minute win.
“I am playing better and better. Just the results in the first part of the season were not there. This part of the season I love it. The European clay-court season,” he added. “He was coming up so far last year and this year with great results. It was only his second match on a clay court. I had a lot of respect going into the match for the way he serves and his athletic abilities. The balls are coming really fast, so I was trying to use my clay court experience today, and it was very good,” Thiem said when asked about Shelton.
Later on Thursday, Spain’s Bernabe Zapata Miralles earned a comeback victory against second seed Hubert Hurkacz, 6-7(7), 6-4, 6-2. By beating world No. 12, Zapata Miralles scored his biggest career win by measure of the ATP Rankings and picked up his second Top 20 victory after beating Taylor Fritz last year at Roland Garros.