By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Monday May 2, 2022
Andy Murray is back on clay, and back to winning ways. The Scot picked up his first win on clay – and at Madrid – since 2017 on Monday, defeating Dominic Thiem, 6-3, 6-4, to reach the second round.
34-year-old Murray jumps to 11-8 on the season and 28-9 lifetime at Madrid, where he is a two-time champ (once on clay, in 2015).
In this battle of former Grand Slam champions it was Murray who was more comfortable on court, and much further along in his quest to recapture former glory. Thiem is playing just his third event since returning from a wrist injury, and he clearly is struggling to find his form, particularly on the forehand side.
Thiem’s unforced error count made the difference (33 on the evening), and after the match Murray explained that things are only going to get better for the Austrian in time.
“It’s extremely difficult,” Murray said of Thiem. “He’s obviously had the injury initially and then also had some setbacks along the way. Mentally it will take time to, I think, feel confident totally accelerating on the ball. I had a wrist injury when I was 20 years old and it’s very difficult. It took me time before I started to feel comfortable on the forehand side again.
After the victory Murray had some encouraging words of support for Thiem when they met at the net.
The Scot believes that time is the key ingredient for Thiem right now. He’ll just need to develop comfort in his right wrist as it moves through the forehand stroke once again.
“He uses his wrist a lot when he plays, he plays with heavy topspin and it’s obviously going to take him time but he can still hit the ball great. He served well, moved well - it’s just going to take time. I’m sure he’ll be back. It’s great that he’s back competing and obviously playing again but I’m sure he’ll want to be better.”
Meanwhile, Murray looked extremely sharp against Thiem, in his first match since falling to Daniil Medvedev in the second round at Miami. He saved all three break points he faced and won 69 percent of his second-serve points against Thiem.
Murray hit 20 winners against 13 unforced errors, while Thiem hit 26 winners and 33 unforced. The Austrian hit 18 forehand winners but produced 24 errors off that wing. He drops to 0-3 on the season, and 2-3 lifetime against Murray.