At the ATP 500 tournament on Monday, Thiago Monteiro of Brazil defeated Dominic Thiem of Austria 6-1, 3-6, 7-6(2) to advance to the second round for the first time this year at a tour-level competition.
In a tightly contested match, the home favorite took the first five games to lead early before winning the set on serve to advance. Even though the World No. 3 Thiem evened the score, but Monteiro kept his cool and saved all four break points he faced in the third set to win their first ATP Head2Head match after two hours and 46 minutes.
The No. 1 player, who is 28 years old, For the seventh time, he will compete in the clay-court tournament in Brazil, ranking 80 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings. His best performance came in 2017 when he made it to the quarterfinals. Monteiro will want to get back to that point when he plays either second-seeded Cameron Norrie or Argentine lucky loser Juan Manuel Cerundolo in the second round.