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Dominic Thiem was thrilled to beat 'top opponent' Roberto Bautista Agut in the second round in Bastad on Thursday as he continues his comeback from injury.
Two days ago, the Austrian beat Emil Ruusuvuori in a third-set tie-break for his first competitive win on the ATP tour in 14 months. He has now followed up that win by beating World No. 20 Bautista Agut in another three-setter to make the quarterfinals at the Nordea Open.
Thiem, ranked 339 in the world, injured his wrist at the Mallorca Open last year, ruling him out for the rest of the season. After beating Bautista Agut, the Austrian tweeted that he's happy with his progress.
"I'm so happy with my win today against a top opponent! It's a great feeling to finally get my full strength in the shots back. I still need to improve a couple of things in my game, but overall I'm very happy with my progress!" Thiem wrote.
He added that he's looking forward to giving his 100% against eighth seed Sebastien Baez in the quarterfinals on Friday.
"Tomorrow I will give 100% and try to increase my level once more! Thank you all for the support," tweeted Thiem.
The two players have not met on tour before.
Dominic Thiem's 2022 campaign thus far
Dominic Thiem made his comeback at the Marbella Challenger in March, where he lost to Pedro Cachin. The Austrian then endured an opening-round exit in each of the six tournaments that followed.
During this period, Thiem won just one set in defeats against John Millman (Belgrade), Benjamin Bonzi (Estoril), Andy Murray (Madrid), Fabio Fognini (Rome), Marco Cecchinato (Geneva) and Hugo Dellien (Roland Garros).
The 2020 US Open champion pulled out of Wimbledon, continuing his comeback on clay. He beat Filip Misolic in the Salzburg Challenger for his first competitive win at any level in almost a year before beating Ruusuvuori for his first ATP tour win.
After beating Bautista Agut for his second win in three days, Thiem spoke about the confidence the Ruusuvuori match gave him and the belief he had after winning the first set against the Spaniard.
“The win against Emil gave me confidence that I can compete against the best players in the world and today against Roberto," said Thiem. "He is always such a tough opponent. I was expecting and hoping it would be a close match. Then when I won the first set in the tie-break I said ‘Hey, I can win today.’ I had the belief until the end of the match and the third set was really good.”
Dominic Thiem will now look to continue his winning ways against Baez on Friday for a place in the semifinals.
