Dominic Thiem is into his first quarterfinal at the Australian Open, dominating No.10 seed Gael Monfils 6-2 6-4 6-4 on Monday at Rod Laver Arena.
In the first face-off between top-10 men at AO2020, the No.5 seed put in his sharpest performance of the tournament, needing less than two hours to extend his dominance over the entertaining but notoriously unpredictable Frenchman to 6-0.
“Well, I played my best so far at this Australian Open,” said the obviously delighted winner, taken to five sets with Aussie Alex Bolt in the second round and needing four to get past Taylor Fritz in his previous win.
“Very, very good feeling. I was managing to hold my serve well. I’m so happy because I’m the first time in the quarterfinals here.”
Thiem was untouchable on serve, never presenting Monfils with a break chance and significantly upping the pace of his first serve compared with his prior rounds. A thunderous 216km ace to hold serve for 3-1 signalled his intentions. He dropped just two points on serve in the first set and repeated that extraordinary stat in the third.
Monfils, the AO2004 junior champion and 2016 quarterfinalist, had given a pithy preview of this match-up. The clash today was almost as curt.
The Frenchman was on the back foot from the first game, surviving a break point, and kept on the defensive as Thiem launched forward off attacking forehands and was clinical on volleys.
Monfils led Thiem in their first two meetings by a set and a break but it was apparent on Monday why this is such a tough match-up for the Frenchman, his athletic artistry and spontaneity no match for machine-like precision of Thiem, a relentless workhorse who has gone toe-to-toe with Rafa Nadal in the last two Roland Garros deciders.
The Austrian twice took the Monfils serve and had the opening set in 27 brisk minutes.
Monfils made some running early in the second, throwing in his signature mix of the brilliant and bizarre. An underarm serve to hold for 2-1, doubles serving positions, double-handed volleys, chancey drop shots. The service break for 4-3 was delayed but felt inevitable, the Frenchman missing a wasteful volley with Thiem out of position.
A sloppy opening game to surrender serve at the start of the third set all but sealed Monfils’ fate. There was no coming back. It was a repeat of their only previous major meeting at Roland Garros last year: ‘Domi’ dominated, while Monfils was disappointing.
Notably absent from Thiem’s player box today was countryman and former No.1 Thomas Muster. They parted ways after Thiem’s second round over Bolt, during which he was warned for courtside coaching. Thiem at one stage put a finger to his lips as he eyeballed his box on a changeover.
The clay court animal has been a big improver on hard courts, Thiem winning his first Masters title at Indian Wells last March, over Roger Federer. He again toppled Federer and Novak Djokovic back-to-back at the ATP Finals before losing the decider to Stefanos Tstsipas.
The 26-year-old with one of the game’s best single-handed backhands has never shown his best at Melbourne Park - Thiem retired last year with illness in the second round against Alexei Popyrin and was upset in the 2018 fourth round by Tennys Sandgren. But those struggles are behind him.
Next up for Thiem in his quarterfinal debut is the winner of Monday night’s Rafa Nadal-Nick Kyrgios blockbuster. “I couldn’t be happier,” said the in-form Austrian, “to watch that relaxed from home. Doesn’t matter who I face.”