Garin adds to Thiem’s woes in Santiago

Chilean wild card Cristian Garin defeated Austrian wild card Dominic Thiem 6-2, 7-6(2) to move into the second round of the Chile Open at the Club Universidad Católica de San Carlos de Apoquindo in Santiago on Tuesday night.

Garin prevails in front of his home crowd 🇨🇱@Garin_Cris served up some spectacular tennis to take out Thiem 6-2 7-6(2).@chile_open | #MovistarChileOpen pic.twitter.com/MwpqYVbvTT

— ATP Tour (@atptour) March 1, 2023

Thiem has been struggling since returning from a wrist injury last spring. The 2020 US Open champion won 18 main-tour matches last season but is just 1-6 so far in 2023.

Garin is hoping to triumph in Santiago for a second time, and a second victory there would be even sweeter than the one in 2021 because there were no fans due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“It was sad because it was the year that [there] was no crowd,” Garin reflected. “So I hope to repeat it again in my career. It is one of my favorite weeks in the year. I enjoy it from the beginning until the end, so I will fight every match to try to make [it] as [far] as possible.”

The world No 100 was certainly thrilled with his performance on Tuesday.

“It was a very tough match,” he admitted. “I think we both played well the second set. The first set I started very aggressive. I started making shots from the beginning and I think that was the difference. (In the) second set I had a lot of break points; I couldn’t make it. But I stayed there serving well, so very happy the way that I played.”

Garin will face No 3 seed Sebastian Baez next.

Santiago ATP250, other first-round matchups and results:

• Nicolas Jarry beat Juan Pablo Varillas: 7-6(1), 6-4
• Marco Cecchinato beat Facundo Bagnis: 6-2, 3-6, 7-6(3)
• Laslo Djere (6) beat João Sousa: 6-3, 6-2
• Roberto Carballes Baena beat Carlos Taberner (LL): 6-1 ret.
• Tomas Martin Etcheverry beat Fabio Fognini: 6-1, 7-6(1)
• Dusan Lajovic beat Camilo Ugo Carabelli (Q): 6-1, 6-3
• Thiago Monteiro beat Albert Ramos-Vinolas (5): 7-5, 4-6, 7-5
• Jaume Munar beat Alejandro Tabilo (WC): 6-0, 6-7(4), 7-6(5)
• Riccardo Bonadio (Q) beat Daniel Elahi Galan: 6-3, 7-6(5)
• Juan Manuel Cerundolo (Q) beat Pedro Cachin (7): 6-4, 3-6, 6-3
• Yannick Hanfmann (Q) beat Pedro Martinez: 6-2, 6-0