Thiem advances as ailing Dimitrov is forced to retire at Winston-Salem

Grigor Dimitrov started like a house on fire during his second-round match with Dominic Thiem at Winston-Salem, taking the opening set, 6-0. But midway through the second set the Bulgarian fell ill, and after a medical timeout he was forced to retire the match to the Austrian, 0-6, 4-2 RET.

“There’s not much to say,” Thiem said after the players had shaken hands. “Just all the best to Grigor and I hope that he’s getting healthy very soon again, that he’s healthy also for the US Open. It’s obviously not the way I want to win a match, especially against him – he’s such a great guy, such a great player.”

Thiem, who hit three winners against 10 unforced errors in that opening set, will be eager to have another chance to work on his game before the US Open.

The Austrian will play the winner of the match between Italian Fabio Fognini and No 13 seed Jack Draper next.

In the previous round of the Winston-Salem, Dominic Thiem edged out American wildcard J.J. Wolf (6-7 (5), 7-5, 7-6 (6)).

Winston-Salem ATP 250, other second-round matches and results (Wake Forest Tennis Complex, hard, USD 823.420, most recent results first):

• Jaume Munar vs. Chun-Hsin Tseng
• Lorenzo Sonego vs. Alejandro Tabilo
• Tallon Griekspoor vs. Botic Van De Zandschulp
• Mikael Ymer vs. Marc-Andrea Huesler: tuesday
• Fabio Fognini vs. Jack Draper: tuesday
• Benjamin Bonzi (10) beat Kyle Edmund: 6-4, 7-6 (5)
• Steve Johnson beat Pedro Martinez (12): 7-6 (2), 6-2
• Adrian Mannarino beat Emil Ruusuvuori (9): 6-4, 6-1
• Maxime Cressy (4) beat James Duckworth: 6-3, 6-3
• Albert Ramos-Vinolas (8) beat John Millman: 6-4, 6-4
• Jason Kubler (Q) beat SoonWoo Kwon: 7-5, 6-2
• Laslo Djere beat João Sousa (16): 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (5)
• Ilya Ivashka (11) beat Peter Gojowczyk: 6-4, 6-2
• Richard Gasquet beat Lorenzo Musetti (5): 7-6 (5), 4-6, 6-1
• Thiago Monteiro beat Nikoloz Basilashvili (6): 6-4, 6-1

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