Rio Open: Former Champ Thiem Dominant On Clay

• The ATP Rio Open field includes four former champions
• Can 2017 winner and world #4 Dominic Thiem pick up where he left off, reaching the final of the Australian Open?
• All of the favorites and best value bets for this tournament are listed below

Dominic Thiem knows what it’s like to walk away with the ATP Rio Open title.

The last time Thiem was seen on a tennis court, the Austrian star was facing world #1 Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open final. He didn’t win that day but in 2017, Thiem did defeat Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta 7-5, 6-4 to capture the Rio Open.

Bookmaker has established Thiem as the +170 favorite to do so again this year in this ATP 500 clay-court tournament.

ATP Rio Open Tennis Tournament Odds

*Odds taken Feb. 15th

Three other former Rio Open winners – Serbia’s Laslo Djere (2019), Uruguay’s Pablo Cuevas (2016) and Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman (2018) – are also included in the field.

Thiem Feels Rio Open Extremes

Thiem has literally lived that old Wide World of Sports axiom during his Rio Open experiences. He’s enjoyed the thrill of victory – his tournament victory over Busta in 2017. Thiem also felt the agony of defeat. In 2019, he suffered a first-round setback against eventual champion Djere.

His last two appearances proved to be all-or-nothing outcomes for the Austrian. While winning the tournament, Thiem didn’t drop a single set. He went 10-0 and never even needed to go to a single tiebreaker.

While crashing out in the first round last year, he failed to win a single set. Thiem lost to Djere 3-6, 3-6 in straight sets.

Thiem’s only other appearance in Rio came in 2016. He reached the semifinals before falling 1-4, 1-6 to Argentina’s Guido Pella.

Schwartzman Fares Well in Rio

Schwartzman defeated Spain’s Francisco Verdasco 6-3, 6-2 in the 2018 final. The Argentine generally gives a good accounting of himself in Rio. It generally takes a champ to take him out of the tournament.

Injury forced him to retire from his round of 32 match last year against 2016 champion Pablo Cuevas. Schwartzman lost to eventual champion Thiem in the 2017 quarterfinals. He also lost to Thiem in the round of 16 in 2016.

Cuevas Also Likes Rio

Last year, Cuevas lost in the semifinals of this tournament to Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime. En route to his 2016 title, he stunned Rafael Nadal, the world’s top clay-court player. Cuevas defeated the 2014 Rio Open champ 6-7 (6), 7-6 (3), 6-4 in the semifinals that year.

The Uruguayan player and world #48 fell 6-4, 5-7, 0-6 to Nadal in the 2015 Rio quarterfinals.

Value Bets Worth Considering

Pella is a regular in the event. However, Rio hasn’t been kind to him since his 2016 final appearance. The world #47 has exited in the first round the past three years.

Croatia’s Borna Coric (48-37, .565) is a solid clay-court performer. But the world #31 is just a middling 8-6 in his last 14 matches on clay.

ATP Rio Open Tennis Tournament Champions

A sleeper to keep an eye on could be Chile’s Cristian Garin. He’s 4-0 on clay this season.

Ranked 26th in the world, Garin comes to the Rio Open off a victory at the clay court Cordoba Open. At that tourney, he beat Schwartzman 2-6, 6-4, 6-0 in the final and took out Cuevas 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the quarterfinals.

Thiem’s Feats of Clay

His strong performance in Melbourne pushed Thiem past Russia’s Daniil Medvedev into #4 in the world rankings. On clay, the case can be made that Thiem is #2 on the planet behind only Nadal.

"I want to get to number 3 in the world and if I win here I get close. It's a nice goal for the upcoming weeks" – @ThiemDomi #RioOpen

— Rio Open (@RioOpenOficial) February 15, 2020

Thiem is 136-45 lifetime on clay, a .751 winning percentage. He’s earned 10 of his 16 career ATP tournament titles on clay surfaces.

He’s 12-2 in his last 14 clay-court matches. If Thiem is on his game in Rio, no one is going to stop him from claiming the title.

Pick: Dominic Thiem (+170)

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