Dominic Thiem: 'Facing Roger Federer is always a honor'
Dominic Thiem was pleased with his performance in the straight-set win over Fabio Fognini in Madrid. The Austrian player said: "It was a great match, he won Monte Carlo, I won Barcelona so it was a great match up. We both had good chances to win that second set and at the end I was more lucky so I am very happy. In the first set he did not have his best start so I broke him on 2-all and I served very well. That was one key, my good serve and also in the right moments I hit some good returns." On the upcoming quarter-final clash against Federer, Thiem added: "It's such a honor to play Roger, you can learn so much."
Analyzing his win over Monfils, Federer said: "Gael did a nice job of not being frustrated after losing the first set, and I think he learned from his match yesterday where he also lost the first set 6-1 so I think that helped him to stay calm and from my side I tried to keep it going but it was difficult, and then i had a tough run of losing five games in a row at the end of the second set and beginning of the third, going down 3-0 and then 4-1. It was not looking good for a while but hung in there like he did as well in that second set and then it got decided in the tie-breaker where I saved match points, serve and volley on second serve, so it was highly stressful moments for me but I played a great tie-break, served well and mixed it up nicely. I must be very happy with this match regardless if I was going to win or lose. It gave me a lot of informations, we just saw how tricky clay can be with the swirling winds, with the slippery surface, with the bad bounces sometimes you get here in Madrid, with the altitude on top of it. It's not just simple to say, Okay, Let me just hit a few shots. This is a different type of clay court tennis so I really had to force myself to stay aggressive, take on the bad bounces, just let them happen if they did and if they didn't, great. But I was always trying to play a positive and aggressive tennis and it paid off today."
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2HdEgMU
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