Thiem thwarted in bid to pass Federer in world rankings

Update: 2020-02-23 17:34 GMT

Rio De Janeiro: World number four Dominic Thiem of Austria missed a chance to reach a career-best third in the ATP rankings with a Rio Open quarter-final loss to Italy's Gianluca Mager.

Mager, a 128th-ranked qualifier playing in only his eighth career tour-level match, defeated 2017 Rio champion Thiem 7-6 (7/4), 7-5 in a match that was halted Friday by rain.

Had Thiem reached the semi-finals in his 2020 clay-court debut, he would have overtaken Roger Federer for third in Monday's ATP rankings. Thiem was down a set and a break when rain stopped the match Friday with Mager leading 7-6 (7/4), 2-1.

Mager served for the match in the ninth game of the second set but Thiem broke to pull level at 5-5, only to have the Italian claim the final two games and the match after one hour and 55 minutes on the court on Saturday. 

Similar News

Break before breakthrough

Captain’s knock on door

Cueist Pillai clinches gold

Merlin Rise hosts U-12 tourney

Big Ben lords over all