Anderson Stuns Thiem In Three-Set Thriller

Published 08/08/2017, 11:41 AM EDT

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On Thursday, top seed Dominic Thiem and 15th seed Kevin Anderson put on a show for fans in what was the most thrilling match at the Citi Open. If you’re interested in betting on the Citi Open, visit our site to bet on tennis matches. Thiem and Anderson’s third round match was filled with everything you could imagine. There was rain delay, momentum shifts, and great rallies. At the end of the match, it was quite unfortunate that one of them had to lose. The match went into three sets, and Anderson needed to save a match point in the final set tie breaker to prevail over Thiem 6-3, 6-7(6), 6-7(7).

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After the match, Anderson told reporters the win felt great because he worked really hard and committed himself to play as well as he did on Thursday. He added that while his hard work always showed during practice, it didn’t always translate to the court when it mattered. As his confidence grew, Anderson’s hard work showed on the court and he is happy to be playing the type of tennis he always knew he was capable of. Anderson appeared to have the match in hand when he had a 6-5 lead and the serve in the second set tiebreak, but Thiem was able to stave him off with a big forehand winner and forced a third set. The top-seeded Thiem almost completed the comeback, but failed to do so when he had the serve and a 5-4 lead in the final set.

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Thiem also had Anderson on the ropes in the final tiebreaker, but the South African fought his way back from a 5-6 deficit and a 6-7 deficit to win the match. When it was all said and done, the match took two hours and forty-six minutes. With the win, Anderson now has a 6-0 lead over Thiem in their head to head matches, all of them coming on hard court surfaces. The win also gives Anderson his second semi-final appearance at an ATP tournament this year, the first coming on clay at the Estoril Open in May.

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Anderson has a great chance to make it to the Citi Open final because his next opponent is qualifier Yuki Bhambri, a 25-year-old from India ranked 200 in the world. While Anderson was getting all the attention after toppling the top seed in the tournament, Milos Raonic moved closer to winning his second Citi Open championship after defeating Marcos Baghdatis in straight sets. Raonic, who credited his experience for helping him defeat the hard serving Baghdatis, will face American Jack Sock in the next round. Sock defeated fellow American Jared Donaldson in a match that was similar to Raonic’s. He now has a 2-0 head to head record against Donaldson.

After his match, Sock told reporters that his serve was the key to his victory over Donaldson because he was able to get easy points by being aggressive. He also credited playing in front of home fans also helped. Raonic and Sock have met 10 times, and Raonic has an 8-2 head to head record against Sock. Raonic also won their only meeting at the Citi Open in 2014.

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Dhruv George

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Dhruv George is a senior Formula One and NASCAR analyst for EssentiallySports, having authored nearly 12000 articles spanning different sports like F1, NASCAR, Tennis, NFL, and eSports. He graduated with a PG Diploma in Journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications. Dhruv has also conducted interviews with F1 driver Pierre Gasly and Moto2 rider Tony Arbolino.
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